3rd LD: Mall shooting in NW U.S. kills 4 women

A shooting at a mall north of Seattle in the U.S. State of Washington killed four women on Friday night.

Washington State Patrol in the U.S. Pacific Northwest state said a lone gunman with a rifle was on the loose after the incident, which took place at Cascade Mall in Burlington.

Police initially reported four people were killed, then changed the fatalities to three, before revising the number again.

All four female victims were found at a Macy's department store in the mall which contains around 50 vendors. One male sustained life-threatening injuries and was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, which was about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Burlington.

The mall was located about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Seattle, the biggest city in the state.

Sergeant Mark Francis, a public information officer with the state patrol, told a press conference that the injured male "most likely will pass away."

Throughout the night, Francis tweeted a series of messages including a description of the shooter as a "Hispanic male wearing grey."

"Here is the shooter. We believe (there is) just one shooter ... armed with rifle," Francis noted, referring to a blurry image of the suspect from a security camera which was posted on Twitter social network.

The police were alerted about the incident at 6:58 p.m. local time (0058 GMT).

The shopping mall was evacuated, and searched by state and local law enforcement agencies.

Federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were sent to the scene.

The FBI has "no information to suggest additional attacks planned in WA state," the Seattle FBI office said in a Twitter posting. Endi