Witnesses have told of the panic after acid was hurled over revellers outside a gay nightclub in east London leaving three men with lasting injuries.

Three men were injured after a noxious substance was thrown over them in Dalston in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The victims, aged 17, 22, and 27, were taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital to receive urgent treatment.

A witness told the Evening Standard that two men appeared to be targeting those leaving the Dalston Superstore gay bar on Kingsland High Road just after 5am.

However, police are not currently treating the incident as a homophobic attack.

Police officers were called to Kingsland High Street in Hackney at 5.20am to reports that three people had been injured with a 'noxious substance'

The man, who did not want to be named, told the newspaper that he had left the club shortly before the attack and woke up at a friend's flat after hearing a 'commotion.'

He saw a car stop in the middle of the road and two men jump out and start attacking people.

The men then took water bottles from the car and began squirting liquid at passers-by.

'My first thought was 'why are they squirting water' but then I realised it was acid,' the witness said.

'People were screaming in pain and running. I heard one person shouting he couldn't see and saying 'it's in my eyes'.'

He said one of the men then hurled a glass bottle on the ground.

'The bottle smashed and people were screaming that they could smell acid,' the 26-year-old witness added.

Police officers were called to Dalston at 5.20am to reports that three people had been injured with a 'noxious substance'.

No arrests have yet been made and enquiries continue, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson told MailOnline.

The scene is less than a mile from where Arthur Collins, the father of Towie star Ferne McCann's baby, threw a corrosive substance inside Mangle E8 nightclub, injuring 22 people, in April last year.

Collins is now serving a 20-year jail sentence.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: 'Police were called to reports of a disturbance on Kingsland High Street at around 5.20am.

'Officers attended and found three males suffering injuries believed to have been caused by a noxious substance.

'The victims, aged 17, 22 and 27 years old, were taken by paramedics to an east London hospital. We await an update on their condition.'