Gunfire Panics Pennsylvania Mall Shoppers

Shoppers took refuge inside a mall Friday morning after shots were fired in the parking lot, apparently during an attempted armored car holdup.

Television footage showed three bullet casings in the parking lot of the South Mall, where police converged shortly after 10:30 a.m. It wasn't immediately clear if anyone was hurt.

Bank of America spokesman Ernesto Anguilla said the shooting was apparently related to an attempted holdup of an armored car.

"The incident did occur in the mall parking lot, outside of the banking center," he told The Associated Press. "None of our associates or customers were injured. The lobby of our banking center is currently closed while the police investigate."

A store employee heading into work noticed a suspicious vehicle in the parking lot between the bank and the mall entrance, said Shawn Southard, a spokesman for mall owner Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust. The employee alerted mall security, who in turned contacted police around 10 a.m., Southard said.

Patty Dudley, a shopper from Macungie, said she was at Stein Mart in the mall when employees ushered her and other customers to the back of the store. They told her something had happened outside and customers could not leave.

"I was just making a return and then I was hiding under a clothing rack," she told The Morning Call, an Allentown newspaper.

The shooting occurred just over the Allentown city line in Salisbury Township. Police officials there declined immediate comment.