Fireworks set off inside Town Center mall, leading to gunfire panic

BOCA RATON — Panic ensued at the Town Center mall on Saturday night when unidentified people set off firecrackers in the mall, leading shoppers and staffers to believe there had been gunshots, police said.

In a post on X (the former Twitter), police said they responded to the mall about 5 p.m. Saturday for a report of possible gunfire.

Officers determined that the noise had come from “unidentified individuals” had set off fireworks on the property, and that there was no threat to the public, the X post said.

One person who was there at the time wrote on the Boca Police Facebook page that the incident was terrifying.

“I was in the food court with my daughter when everyone started screaming and running. We had to hide in a closet. I hope whoever did this gets prosecuted!!!” Carrie Bauman wrote. “A woman was standing in the food court with no shoes crying because she couldn’t find her children. Children who hid in the closet with us were screaming because they were separated from their parents.”

No further information from the Boca Police Department was immediately available Sunday.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Fireworks set off inside Town Center mall, leading to gunfire panic