One dead and three injured after drive-by shooting outside Melbourne nightclub

A drive-by shooting outside a Melbourne nightclub left one person dead and three others injured.

Three security guards outside the Love Machine nightclub and a club-goer queueing to enter were shot on Sunday at about 3.20am local time, according to Victoria Police.

One of the security guards, a 37-year-old man from Narre Warren South, was fatally shot and died in hospital from “horrific” injuries.

Three others were rushed to hospital, with a 28-year-old man in critical condition.

Homicide inspector Andrew Stamper said in a televised news conference: “It would appear that shots have been discharged from a car in this area into a crowd standing outside of a nightclub.”

The victims suffered "horrific injuries" from a weapon fired in close proximity, he added.

There is no suggestion the attack was terror-related, a police spokeswoman said.

Bloodstained clothing and bullet casings littered the street outside the entrance to the second-storey Love Machine nightclub early on Sunday morning.

Police urged witnesses who saw any vehicle moving at speed around 3am to come forward, and mentioned a black Porsche SUV that was later found burnt-out in the north Melbourne suburb of Wollert.

No arrests have been made, and the investigation continues.

Australia has some of the world’s toughest gun control laws, adopted after its worst mass murder, when a gunman killed 35 people at Port Arthur in the island state of Tasmania in 1996.