Criminal defence lawyer Mahmoud Abbas is undergoing surgery after being shot in the driveway of his south-west Sydney home in what police have branded a “brazen and targeted attack”.

Abbas, 30, stumbled back to the house in Greenacre with wounds to his torso and leg after his unknown attacker or attackers shot him about 10.25am as he climbed into his car. Inside the home on Narelle Crescent, the lawyer called paramedics himself.

Abbas was taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition and is undergoing emergency surgery, Bankstown Police Area Commander Detective Superintendent Adam Johnson said on Wednesday afternoon.

Johnson said the shooting was targeted and one attacker, “if not more”, was on the run. He confirmed Abbas was known to the police, although not adversely, and that other people were inside the family home at the time of the shooting.

Police have not established a motive or any connections to other recent shootings, Johnson said.

Last year underworld figure Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad was shot dead in the same street in an unrelated incident.

The news of the shooting on Wednesday spread quickly through Sydney’s legal community. One defence lawyer, who did not wish to be named out of fear for his safety, labelled the incident as “shocking”.

“It’s absolutely unfathomable. [Abbas] is one of those guys who keeps to himself,” they told the Herald.