The police have appealed for information that could lead officers to trace three suspects believed to have shot two men dead in Sliema on Tuesday night.

Chris Pandolfino and his partner Ivor Maciejowski were shot dead inside their residence in Locker Street. Police were alerted to the sound of gunfire at around 10.30pm.

Upon entering, they found the victims, one on the ground floor and the other upstairs.

Speaking at a crime conference, police spokesperson Brandon Pisani said CCTV cameras had caught three suspects entering and leaving the residence. They spent around four minutes inside the house.

The assailants later made off in a white vehicle. The police are still trying to establish the make and model of the car used. He appealed to the public to come forward with any information, adding that they can do so anonymously.

The police said an incident where four cars caught fire in Iklin was unrelated.

Pisani said Pandolfino had left the house earlier that evening, but Maciejowski had stayed home. Asked whether anything had gone missing from the house, the spokesperson said investigators were still going through the evidence.

An autopsy on the bodies will be held on Thursday. Asked whether there could have been a struggle, Pisani said the autopsy would confirm that.

The police are at this stage also unable to say whether there was a break-in.

No police reports had been filed in the past, and the victims had not reported any threats in the past. Six cartridges were found at the scene but the murder weapon has not been found.

The victims were shot in different parts of their body. 

No one has been arrested so far, but the police are speaking to a number of witnesses. 

The motive behind the murder remains unclear but the police are not excluding anything at this stage.