Four shot dead in shooting at mall

Four people have been shot dead at a mall in northwest Washington state and the gunman has fled the scene, police said on social media on Friday.

The shooting occurred at about 7:30 p.m. local time Friday at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, about 65 miles (105 km) north of Seattle, Washington State Patrol spokesman Mark Francis said in a Twitter post.

A local hospital told a CBS affiliate that it has received one casualty from the shooting. The station reported that a nearby high school football game was evacuated as a precaution.

Francis said police were actively searching for the shooter, who was described as a "Hispanic male wearing gray" and last seen walking toward a nearby highway away from the mall.

Rescue workers were entering the mall to attend to the injured, Francis said in a Twitter post.

The shooting comes less than a week after a man stabbed nine people at a mall in central Minnesota before being shot dead. The FBI is investigating that attack as a potential act of terrorism.

NBC News reported that Washington State Patrol have said that there is no indication of terrorism in the shooting in Burlington.