(Washington) Gunshots created panic Thursday in the Mall of America, the largest shopping center in the country located in the suburbs of Minneapolis, according to the police who indicated that they were intervening in an “incident in progress”.
Posted at 7:26 p.m.
Images circulating on social media, which could not be immediately authenticated, showed families running out of the gigantic shopping complex, which has no less than 500 stores.
“The Mall of America is currently under containment”, tweeted the center’s management, specifying that this is an “isolated” incident, limited to a store which it did not identify.
“Please stay in a safe place until the security measures are lifted,” adds the management of the shopping center.
A video posted to Twitter appears to show a person screaming into a Nike store. Several shots ring out soon after.
Another video shows frightened families carrying children in pushchairs running or pulling them by the hand, while guards patrol the scene, their weapons drawn.
We hear a message transmitted by loudspeakers: “be careful, if you are not yet in a safe place, seek shelter immediately”.
“We are currently responding to an incident on the north side of the Mall of America,” tweeted police in Bloomington, a southern suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“Many police are on site,” said the police without reporting any casualties.