Gun violence is relatively rare in the country, where possession of unlicensed firearms carries the death penalty. But a recent string of apparently targeted attacks, including a daylight assassination in Johor earlier this year, has reignited concerns over underworld rivalries playing out on the country’s streets.
Masked men ambushed the victims as they were walking to their car outside the Viva Home shopping centre in Cheras area of the capital just after midnight on Tuesday.
The assailants were wearing black ski masks and motorcycle helmets, witnesses said, and ran towards the men, opened fire and then fled in a car.
Both victims, believed to be in their forties, were pronounced dead at the scene, the Kuala Lumpur police said, without naming them.
Mohamed Usuf Jan Mohamad, deputy commissioner of the Kuala Lumpur police, said the case has been classified as murder. “So far, the police are conducting further investigations to identify the suspects and the motive behind the incident,” he added.
