ROME (Reuters) - Four men were shot dead in an apparent gangland killing on Wednesday in southern Italy, police said, with two of the victims believed to be farmers who were targeted because they had witnessed the attack.

The men were gunned down close to a railway crossing near the village of San Marco in Lamis in the Puglia region.

Two of the dead were named by police as Mario Luciano Romito, a well-known local crime boss, and his brother-in-law Matteo De Palma. They were traveling together in a black Volkswagen Beetle when a car drew alongside and fired at them.

The assailants then opened fire on two farmers sitting nearby in their car, killing one on the spot. The second died later in hospital. Italian media reported that they were brothers who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.