Lucknow, Feb 13 (IANS): A young man was shot at by his rivals in Chinhat police station area, leaving him grievously wounded.

The victim Animesh Dwivedi of Gahmar Kunj Colony and his friends Nitin Kumar and Saurabh Nayakwere going to a dhaba when his rivals, Ashif Ali and Satyapal, both of Deoria and Anant Singh of Gorakhpur, waylaid him when they were in a service lane near a shopping mall in the area.

"They stopped the bike we were riding and opened fire on me and my friends. I suffered a bullet injury in my knee. They were being accompanied by several youths but I could not identify them. They fled the scene, brandishing the weapons and opening fire in the air to intimidate us and the commuters who had started converging to the scene to help us," he said.

He said his friends rushed him to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.

SHO, Chinhat, Alok Rao said that a case of murderous assault against the above-named persons has been registered and efforts are on to arrest them.