According to police, the incident took place around 12.20 pm when William Joseph Peter, Prakash Kadam and Shamsher Jeevan Singh Dhillon were chatting outside Peter's house on Govind Vaze Marg near Guru Nanak Petrol Pump.

Eyewitnesses said the killers, in their mid-twenties, walked up to the three friends and abused them before pulling out guns and opening fire. The bullets were fired at a close range and witnesses heard five shots. As their victims slumped to the ground, the gunmen walked off coolly.

Neighbours rushed the trio to the Cooper Hospital, where Peter and Kadam, who had received injuries on their faces and chests were declared dead before admission. Dhillon, who had one bullet lodged in his leg, is reported to be out of danger.

The MIDC police cordoned off the lower-middle-class residential area of Andheriimmediately after the shooting and began a combing operation. A barber, who was giving Peter a shave when the attack took place, was also being questioned.

Though a senior officer said the killers belonged to a local gang, he refused to name it saying this could hamper investigations. He, however, said the rivalry between the two groups had claimed at least one person on each side since 1995. While Peter's close aide, Suresh Main, was killed a few months back, Peter's gang had got even by eliminating one Firoz of the rival gang. Dhillon in his statement to the police has named the assailants as Salim, Harish, Mannu and Mohanraj. All the three victims were only recently released from jail after undergoing a three-year term in connection with the murder of one Ashok Dharma, an interior decorator.