Police blocked off a large section of Mount Lehman Road in Abbotsford, B.C., where the victim was found Tuesday morning. (CBC)

Homicide investigators have been called to Abbotsford, B.C., to investigate an apparent targeted hit after a body was found next to an SUV just after midnight on Tuesday.

Abbotsford police spokesman Const. Ian MacDonald said when officers arrived around 12:15 a.m. PT, they found the 36-year-old Abbotsford man had been fatally shot and was lying near his vehicle.

Police then closed off a section of Mount Lehman Road where the victim was found, between Townshipline Road and Downes Road in the northwest corner of the Fraser Valley community, about 65 kilometres east of Vancouver.

MacDonald said the victim was known to police and investigators were confident the attack was a targeted hit, but he would not comment on whether the man had links to a specific gang.

Investigators from the Lower Mainland's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team were expected to release further details after taking over the crime scene.

Since the start of the year, at least 20 people have died in shootings that police have linked to a deadly gang war in the Fraser Valley and across Metro Vancouver.

With files from The Canadian Press