No shots fired at Florida Mall, but fight leads to panic

A fight and the sound of falling chairs caused panic at the Florida Mall on Saturday afternoon, but no shots were fired, Orange County deputies said. Two people, one male and one female, got into a fight at the mall’s food court about 5 p.m., Master Deputy Ingrid Tejada-Monforte said.

“A few chairs fell down made it sound like shots Tejada-Monforte said.

As frightened shoppers tried to escape what they thought might be an active shooter, at least 15 people were injured, according to Orange County Fire Rescue. Paramedics took five people to area hospitals. The conditions of the people injured were not immediately available.

Deputies were talking to the two people who were fighting, Tejada-Monforte said.

By 6:25 p.m., stores as usual.

During the panic, many shoppers took to social media to describe the chaos and alert others to the possible danger.

“I was at The Florida Mall during what seems to be a shooter scare,” one user posted on Twitter. “I’ve never been so scared in my life, got seperated from my gf and her family. But we’re all safe now while we figure out what exactly happened.”

The tweet went on to urge readers to “hug your loved ones extra tight cause you never know.”

Another user tweeted that, after a two “pow-pow” sounds, “there was a tsunami of people coming our way.”

“I’ve never been more frightened in my life,” that user said.

This is not the first false shooting scare at the mall: In 2016, nine people were injured fleeing after hearing what ended up being popping balloons. which fired,” were open