Aventura Mall Reopened After Saturday Night Evacuation Chaos

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AVENTURA (CBSMiami) – Aventura Mall has reopened on Sunday following a report of shots fired on Saturday night.

Shoppers were in a panic during an extremely busy evening at the mall, just two days before Christmas.

Many of the last-minute shoppers were seen running for the exits.

Police shut down the mall and conducted an extensive search but say they found no signs of gunfire.

Now, investigators are trying to sort out exactly what happened.

Natasha Otero was in the mall with her teenager by her side and her 89-year-old mother in another store when she heard what she describes as gunshots.

"Pop pop pop; it was three or four," Otero said. "It's very scary. You have heard so many horror stories of things that you think 'do I stay in one place or do I try to run outside?'"

Many shoppers didn't hear anything but were caught in the evacuation chaos and wonder what really happened.

"I don't know if it's real and I see ambulance keep coming, police keep coming and they're on inside and ask everybody to leave," said shopper Yves Bienaime. "To me, we will assume that it something legitimate."

Scared, thousands took cover. Some hid in stores while many ran for the exits, recoding their mad dash on cell phones and sharing it on social media.

"It's like life-and-death situation, the mound of people that was inside at that time for everybody to try to exit," Bienaime said. "I told you I fell and I have two kids with me. Anything could happen to anybody, that is something that should never be no joke about it at all."

Aventura Police is saying there is no evidence of any shots being fired, though the panic the situation crated was dangerous enough.