By Isolde Raftery, NBC News
Updated at 9:51 p.m. ET: A shooting at a mall in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday afternoon left three people dead, including the gunman, and at least one other person injured, police said.
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Lt. James Rhodes of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said the gunman shot two people to death and also died of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Rhodes said another person was wounded with a traumatic injury and sent to a hospital.
Rhodes said police do not believe there was a second shooter.
Oregon Health Science University, one of two level-one trauma centers in the Portland area, reported that one person had been admitted to the hospital. Legacy Emanuel Hospital, the other level-one center, said no patients had been admitted as of 5:15 p.m. local time (8:15 p.m. ET).
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The shooting, which occurred around 3:20 p.m., during the busy holiday shopping season triggered panic at the Clackamas Town Center. The shooting took place in the food court near the Macy's. Those in line to get their photos taken with Santa immediately dove for cover, KGW reported.
A woman who answered the phone at Chipotle in the mall told NBC News that someone ran in and yelled, “It’s a shooting, it’s a shooting.”
KGW reporter Abbey Gibb talks with a witness who was inside a mall near Portland, Oregon when a shooting happened.
She said employees shut the restaurant doors. She said the mall was crawling with police.
KGW.com reported that the shooter was wearing a hockey mask, but it did not cite a source for the information.
Witness Amber Tate told KATU of Portland that she was standing in the parking lot when she spotted a gunman wearing a camouflage shirt and what looked like a bulletproof vest. Tate said he looked like a teenager.
Pedro Garcia, 24, told the Oregonian that he was headed to Panera Bread Co. to buy sandwiches when he heard at least six shots.
"I could smell the gunpowder," Garcia said. "That's what pretty much what made me run."
Rhodes said some people had hidden in break rooms and bathrooms in the mall and that teams of police were working their way through the mall to bring them out. He asked family members for patience and said people inside would eventually be let out of the mall. He said said the number of people in the area had overwhelmed cell towers.
News reporters interviewed the mall Santa, who promised he would return to Clackamas Town Center on Wednesday.