Montreal Mafioso killed in shootout: reports

Agostino Cuntrera, 66, is believed to have been killed in St-Leonard on Tuesday. (CBC)

A well-known member of the Montreal Mafia is reportedly one of two men killed in a shootout in the city's east end on Tuesday.

Police have not officially released their names, but it has been widely reported in the Quebec media that Agostino Cuntrera, 66, was killed in broad daylight in front of a business he owned in St-Leonard.

The reports say the other victim might have been his bodyguard.

Cuntrera, who had connections with the Rizzuto crime family, was well known to the police. He is believed to have taken over Montreal's Mafia after its presumed boss Vito Rizzuto was jailed in the United States.

Montreal authorities say several gunshots were heard at the scene of the shooting, in an industrial area of the borough. Police were looking for a black Chevrolet Impala that witnesses saw leaving the area.

A man in his 40s was taken to hospital where he later died, police spokesman Yannick Paradis said, adding the other man was declared dead at the scene with an apparent gunshot wound to the head.

Two people were arrested overnight but later released when police found they had no connection with the case.

The department's major-crimes investigators set up a perimeter Tuesday afternoon and combed the area for clues until early Wednesday morning.

Investigators are planning to meet with witnesses.