The Tukwila Police Department wrote on Twitter that the shooting at the Westfield Southcenter mall appeared to be “an isolated incident between potentially known individuals.” There was no immediate word of any arrest.

Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Gregg identified the victims as two men, ages 32 and 27.

Shoppers fled the mall or sheltered in locked-down stores after the shots were fired. Wesley Eubanks, of Olympia, told the Associated Press in direct messages on Twitter that he was in the cosmetics store Lush, on the mall’s first level, with his wife when he heard six or seven shots. The couple moved to the back of the store with a few other customers as employees directed them to a certain area, he said.

Tukwila police wrote on Twitter at 12:15 p.m. that officers were at the mall south of Seattle and that people should avoid the area.

“Officers are clearing the mall,” the department tweeted 10 minutes later. “If you are sheltered in place in a store, please stay where you are until contacted by officers.”

Hundreds of people remained on lockdown inside the mall for as long as four hours as police cleared it.