Ottawa police are investigating after witnesses say six gunshots were fired into units at a south-end townhouse complex on Sunday morning.

The shots were heard at about 6 a.m. in the 3200 block of McCarthy Road near Paul Anka Drive, police said.

A witness told CBC News she was getting ready to leave her home when she saw two men. Moments later, according to the witness, a man fired his gun into a unit at the Quarry Co-op on McCarthy, which is empty.

"I saw two guys standing in front and kind of observed them for a couple of minutes because I was about to leave and I was a little nervous," said the witness, who spoke to CBC News on the condition that her name not be used. "And I saw the guy pull the gun from the right side pants pocket, and started shooting at the house in front of him.

"My reaction was, right away I started shaking like a leaf, I started screaming, picked up the phone, called 911. I was just frantic."

The family that lives next door to the empty unit said there were three bullet holes in their house, two in the living room wall and another in the wall of a six-year-old boy’s bedroom near where he was sleeping.

A family says this hole came from a bullet fired through their McCarthy Road townhouse unit in the morning of Aug. 17, 2014. (CBC) There were also two bullet holes in a third unit, according to a woman who lived there.

The witness said she hopes the co-operative housing complex will get more security cameras up and running, along with a neighbourhood watch program.

"My fear is that I was about to be standing, in seconds, beside these guys. What would their reaction have been to me? I would have been their only eyewitness," she said.

"There's a lot of young kids riding bicycles around here ... so to do this in broad daylight, it's kind of scary."

Police have not released any further details but the guns and gangs unit is investigating.

Anyone with information should contact police at 613-236-1220, ext. 5050 or Crime Stoppers at 613-233-8477.