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© Mark Blinch/ReutersPolice cordon off the Eaton Centre in Toronto, Canada, after a deadly shooting spree.
A gunman has escaped after killing a man and wounding five others at Toronto's Eaton Centre, one of Canada's busiest shopping malls.

Police said two people were in a critical condition. They included a 13-year old boy, while the man killed was 25. Several people were trampled and pushed in the panic, including a pregnant woman who went into labour.

Witnesses said multiple shots were fired in the mall's food court and hundreds of panicked shoppers sprinted for the exits. The mall, which is popular with tourists, was evacuated. People watched from outside as an injured man with visible bullet wounds was wheeled out on a stretcher.

The Toronto Blue Jays baseball player Brett Lawrie tweeted that he sprinted out of the mall after hearing the shots. "People sprinting up the stairs right from where we just were."

Marcus Neves-Polonio, 19, was working in the food court when he saw a man pull out a gun and start firing. At least two people were on the ground, he said. "All of a sudden a herd of people were just running toward us, a massive crowd of people screaming, running, freaking out," said Hannah Stewart, 21, a shopper. "We saw this girl, sitting on the ground, and she had blood on her toes." The girl appeared to have been one of the victims and told Stewart she had just been shot.

Erica Solmes, a store manager in the food court, said she heard about 15 shots before a stampede for the exits. Transit service around the mall was shut down for a time.

Source: The Associated Press