A traffic warden and a passerby were shot dead when a man opened fire in a fit of rage after the traffic official prevented him from parking his car in a no-parking spot in Rawalpindi's Committee Chowk area, police said.

The incident occurred at around 7pm in the evening, just 15 minutes before iftar. Despite the Waris Khan police station being located just a few yards away, the police failed to arrive promptly at the scene.

The people present in the area rushed to surround the man who had opened fire and after seizing his weapon, proceeded to beat him up.

Locals shifted the critically injured men to the DHQ hospital where they succumbed to their injuries, hospital officials said.

Upon the arrival of the police, the accused was arrested and the weapon used by him, a Kalashnikov was taken into custody.

The bodies of the deceased were sent for post-mortem examination and an investigation into the incident has been launched by the police.

Rawalpindi police spokesperson Imran Kazmi told DawnNewsTV that a case had been registered against the accused under Sections 302 and 324 of the Pakistan Penal Code

According to traffic police spokesperson Wajid Sati, the deceased traffic warden Shahid Sarwar was a resident of Kallar Syedan in Rawalpindi. He was a father of two children and was recently reinstated into the traffic police force after having spent two years in Dubai. He was known by his comrades to be a highly dutiful and well-mannered man and was fasting when the incident occurred.

The passerby who lost his life was identified as Nisar and was the brother of Shahid Sarwar's fellow traffic warden, Ikhlaq. He was a resident of Gujranwala and worked in Rawalpindi's Raja Bazar as a tailor.