A Ford Mustang in a race with another car lost control and smashed into spectators, leaving two crowd bystanders dead and another onlooker critically hurt in Chatsworth on early Thursday morning, Los Angeles authorities said.

The crash happened around 2 in the morning in a site popular with street racers near Plummer Street and Canoga Avenue, LA Police Department Capt. John McMahon said at the scene.

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One spectator died at the racing area while the second victim lost his life at the hospital, police said.

The hospital listed the third bystander as a patient in serious condition.

Witnesses told investigators the Mustang was in a neck-and-neck race with a second car when the driver careened and hit three crowd spectators.

Police has not yet found the Mustang driver who left his wrecked car on the southern portion of Canoga Avenue.

Authorities cordoned off the area near the crash -- closed to all traffic -- after sunrise on Thursday.

Detectives were searching the area for material evidence, which covered two long lines of vehicle skid marks.

Footage of the scene showed many other much older skid marks that loop in circles around the streets.

McMahon said street racing is often played out in the media as a glamorous form of entertainment but he said unfortunately, as shown in the street scene, it all too often has deadly consequences.

The popular movie series "The Fast and The Furious" is based on street racing.

An actor in the series, Paul Walker, was killed in a single-car accident on November 30, 2013. His final movie, Furious 7, is set to be shown in theaters in summer this year.

Wikipedia lists street racing as an illegal form of vehicle racing that is held on public roads.

Street racing can either be well-planned or spontaneous. Opponents of street racing point to a lack of safety compared to sanctioned racing events, as well as legal nightmares arising from accidents.