Multiple people were injured in a shooting Sunday night at an events complex close to the Space Needle in Seattle, police said in a statement.
Authorities did not immediately say what precipitated the shooting or how many people were wounded, as social media began to light up with videos and accounts of the attack.
On X, Seattle police urged people to avoid the area around the Seattle Center.
The Seattle Times reported that the area was teeming with revelers attending a food festival called the Bite of Seattle.
A reporter for the paper was in attendance and recalled hearing several loud pops, followed by what sounded like rapid gunfire around 6 p.m.
The paper quoted several witnesses who recounted how the sound of the gunfire sent screaming bystanders scrambling for cover.
One woman, 22-year-old Kayla Carris, told the news outlet that she witnessed bystanders “just throwing stuff and running” to get inside a nearby building.
Two festival attendees told local news station KOMO that they heard “seven to eight shots.”
Although violent crime overall has been trending downward nationwide, there have been at least 270 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year, according to the website Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings from more than 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources. The site defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four victims are shot.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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