This is the moment a gunman forces two young men to lie on the pavement before executing them with two shots to the back of the head in broad daylight as the woman filming screams in shock.

The incident was filmed by a resident of the Morro do Coto favela in the Brazilian city of Nova Iguacu.

According to local media, the area in which the incident took place is disputed between police-backed militias and criminal gangs.

Local media did not report when the incident took place, however the footage went viral on social media on 2nd June.

The police are currently looking for the man in the black vest who ordered the two young men to lie on the ground before searching their pockets without finding anything and then shooting them twice in the head with his handgun.

They are also searching for his accomplice who drove the silver Peugeot getaway vehicle the gunman used to flee the scene.

Following the incident, the police arrived and cordoned off the area around the victims, whose identities have not yet been revealed.

It is still unclear if the killing was part of the ongoing dispute between police militias and drug gangs in the area.

The militias are clandestine paramilitary groups made up of serving and former police officers.

They are said to carry out acts of vigilantism and, like the criminal groups they try to stamp out, are believed to have become more involved in organised crime.

They have been accused of establishing their own protection rackets, extorting residents and taxing basic services.