UPDATED 8AM MONDAY (24/6/2024)

Two teens have been arrested following a brawl that sent an Adelaide shopping centre into lockdown and shoppers sprinting to safety.

‘The incident unfolded at Westfield Marion Centre in Adelaide just before 3pm on Sunday and triggered widespread reports of an armed person inside.

Centre management activated an audible alert and evacuation alarm, and the centre went into lockdown.

Shoppers told the Seven Network they were told to “run for their lives” after reports of an armed offender. Seven aired footage of the scenes as terrified people took refuge in shops while police searched the centre.

Assistant Commissioner Scott Duval said it was clear from CCTV footage that the incident was not a random attack.

Two boys, aged 15 and 16, of Mitchell Park and Adelaide, were later arrested and charged with assault, affray and aggravated robbery.

Police also seized two expandable batons.

“There is a third boy that we are seeking and I certainly encourage him to hand himself in to police. We do know his identity and we are making active inquiries to locate him,” Duval told ABC TV on Monday.

The teens are expected to appear in the Adelaide Youth Court on Monday.

‘Run, run’

A young woman, who was in the cinema when the commotion began, told ABC News how it unfolded.

“We were in the movies and we just heard this noise going on saying ’emergency’… and nobody really knew what it was – if it was a phone or something,” she said.

“Someone went out of the movies and all of a sudden everyone just came running in – just sprinting incoming, yelling ‘run, run’.

“Then we got up and started sprinting towards the emergency exit.”

Photos of large digital signs inside the centre warned people of an armed offender in the complex.

Social media footage from shoppers showed armed officers storming into the centre while dozens of people attempted to run to safety.

Police believe the groups of teenagers involved in Sunday’s brawl knew each other.

“What we’ll allege is that it was effectively motivated by the robbery of clothing. So they were targeting clothing from one of the male victims and during that, the weapons were produced and that became the cause of the incident,” Duval said.

“How that meeting occurred in the food court is still to be determined but suffice to say the groups were known to each other … It was not a random attack.”

The lockdown came less than three months after a man attacked shoppers with a knife at a Westfield mall in Bondi Junction, Sydney, killing six people including a security guard.

South Australia Ambulance Service said a 77-year-old woman suffered a shoulder injury while fleeing the centre and another person in their 30s suffered a knee injury.

Westfield Marion is the largest mall in Adelaide and is in Oaklands Park, south of the CBD.

-with AAP