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Rush-hour traffic snarled after a shot was fired outside Trolley Square Thursday morning

(Al Hartmann | Tribune file photo) Shoppers at Trolley Square are seen in this 2008 file photo.

Thursday morning traffic was a mess in the Trolley Square area after police closed off streets to investigate reports of a shot fired shortly before 8 a.m.

According to Salt Lake City police, there was no shooting at the mall itself, which is located at 600 South and 700 East. There was “an altercation” between two men in the street on 600 East, just west of Trolley Square, “and a shot was fired,” said Det. Michael Ruff of the Salt Lake City Police Department. “It may have been fired into the air. It may have been fired into the ground.”

The shot did not strike anyone. The shooter — who is described as bald, 5-10 and white — ran onto mall property, and then drove away. Police are attempting to locate him.

Schools in the area were placed on lockdown as a precaution.

Trolley Square was the site of a Feb. 12, 2007, mass shooting. Eighteen-year-old Sulejman Talovic used a 12-gauge shotgun and a revolver to kill five people — Jeffrey Walker, 52; Vanessa Quinn, 29; Kirsten Hinckley, 15; Brad Frantz, 24; and Teresa Ellis, 29 — and wound five others. Talovic was shot and killed by police.