A father of two was shot twice in front of shocked commuters while sitting in traffic during rush-hour.

The victim, named locally as Lee Boylan (24), was targeted while driving his van on the Blakestown Road in Briarswood, Dublin 15, yesterday evening.

A gunman approached the victim about 5pm as Mr Boyland waited in traffic and fired a number of shots into the vehicle, striking him in the body and neck.

The shooter then ran to a waiting silver BMW 3 Series which was found burned out a short distance away. Several children saw the car being set alight.

The gun victim is known to gardaí, and his associates have links to a number of organised criminals in west Dublin, including the mob led by drug dealer Mr Flashy.

However, he has no previous convictions and was last night being treated in James Connolly Memorial Hospital where he was in a stable condition.

Detectives are probing whether the shooting is connected to an ongoing dispute in the west Dublin area involving Mr Boylan’s associates and criminals from Finglas.

The Finglas gang has links to Shane Fowler, who died in a road traffic collision in the area last May. However, gardaí are following a number of possible motives linked to the shooting which at this stage is being treated as an attempted murder.

“Associates of this man have been embroiled in a number of serious disputes with serious criminal elements in the Finglas and Blanchardstown areas,” a senior source said last night.

Despite being from the Corduff area, gardaí said that there was nothing to suggest Mr Boylan was connected to gun warfare in the area last month which resulted in four shootings within a few hours.

His most serious brush with the law came in February 2016 when he was caught by Customs passing through Dublin Airport with three other local men. They were carrying almost €20,000 in cash with one-way tickets to Malaga, Spain.

Mr Boylan was caught with €2,500 which was forfeited to the State.

He was travelling with a 24-year-old notorious criminal who can’t be named for legal reasons but is currently serving a lengthy jail sentence.

Members of the Armed Support Unit flooded the Blanchardstown area in the aftermath of the gun attack, while a helicopter from the Air Support Unit was also deployed.

The brother of the victim is said to have been in “hysterics” in the direct aftermath of the shooting.

“He kept shouting, ‘My brother has been shot. My brother has been shot’,” said a local resident.

“I live just around the corner from Blakestown and heard about four very loud gun shots.

“When I came out of my house I saw a large crowd of people surrounding the man, who was bleeding very heavily from the side of his body.”

The resident added that the victim is well known in the area and is a father of two children.

Another local resident told the Irish Independent that this is the second shooting to take place in Blakestown in recent months.

“Eric Fowler was fatally shot in December just up the road from here,” she said.

“It’s ridiculous how bad things are getting.

“If shootings like this keep happening it’s only going to be a matter of time before an innocent person gets killed.”

Just five minutes away in Saddlers Grove, Mulhuddart, a number of children witnessed the man, who is linked to the shooting, torch his silver BMW 3 Series car.

Many more residents in the west Dublin estate saw him flee the scene on foot.

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