One man is dead and another has been taken to hospital with serious wounds after a shooting outside a Sydney hotel.

Emergency services were called to the location on Ross Street in Forest Lodge in Sydney’s inner west at about 6.40pm on Sunday.

New South Wales police said two people had been shot multiple times by unknown assailants who left the scene by car.

One man died at the scene while a second was treated by paramedics for gunshot wounds before being taken to hospital in a serious condition.

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One eyewitness told the ABC she heard more than a dozen shots ring out.

“It was such rapid fire I actually thought it was firecrackers, until I saw a family running down the street and screaming,” she said.

Another told the Sydney Morning Herald she saw a man being shot “at least six times” in the neck, chest and legs.

Police have established a crime scene, and Leichhardt detectives – with assistance from the homicide squad – are investigating the incident.