Two assault rifles used in downtown Hamilton ambush

Within seconds of stepping out of the back door of a downtown Hamilton nightclub, the group was met with a barrage of gunshots .

The shooters, armed with what police described as two assault rifles and two handguns, were waiting for their target and opened fire without care for the crowd that had just emerged from Zen Lounge shortly before 1 a.m.

It was an ambush on a scale Hamilton has never seen.

Three young men were shot, with one person in the target group returning fire from a handgun. Another shooting victim allegedly had a handgun on him that was not fired.

In all, more than 80 shots were fired, with bullets striking windows, dumpsters and offices in the John Street South building. Bullets were found as far away as an apartment at the Royal Connaught, some 250 metres from th