A gunman has fired dozens of rounds into a building in Sydney in an attack police are linking to a planned gangland funeral, ABC News reported. The building was unoccupied at the time, and there were no reported injuries from the shooting, despite the volume of gunfire.
Police said the gunman opened fire from an unknown SUV at about half past two in the afternoon, before the vehicle was driven away from the scene. Officers have launched an investigation into who was behind the brazen daytime attack in the heart of the city.
A video circulating on underworld social media, which appears to have been filmed by the attackers themselves from inside the vehicle, shows a hooded figure firing dozens of rounds from a rifle into the building. The footage has added to the sense of an increasingly open and audacious criminal feud playing out in public.
A post on social media had suggested that a funeral for gangland figure Lorenzo Lamalu was due to be held at the building this afternoon. Police say no funeral actually took place there, although the ABC understands detectives believe one had been planned before the arrangements were changed late on.
Investigators believe Lamalu was the leader of the self-proclaimed Coconut Cartel, a gang that has been involved in a series of tit-for-tat shootings with the Alamuddin crime family. The attack appears to be the latest flashpoint in that long-running and increasingly violent conflict.
Lamalu himself was gunned down in Vietnam last month, and his body was returned to his family in Sydney this week. His funeral is now expected to go ahead at a separate location tomorrow, away from the site that was targeted in the shooting.
The attack comes just two days after the New South Wales Parliament passed laws increasing the maximum prison terms for public place shootings by a couple of years. The timing has underlined the challenge authorities face in trying to curb the city's persistent gangland violence.