One person was killed and seven others seriously wounded, one of them a child, when a gunman opened fire in a busy area of the US city of Seattle.

Police said the gunman fled the scene and was still at large. The motive for the shooting is not clear.

Footage from the scene showed officers tending to casualties on the pavement near Third Avenue and Pine Street.

The shooting took place shortly after 17:00 on Wednesday (01:00 Thursday), police added.

The city’s fire department said a woman had died at the scene and the other victims were taken to Harborview Medical Center in a critical condition.

Officers investigating shooting near 4th and Pine. Multiple victims. The suspect has fled, and police are searching for him. Officers and medics are providing first aid to the injured. Additional information to come.

End of Twitter post by @SeattlePD

A medical centre spokeswoman said one woman was in a critical condition, a nine-year-old boy was in serious condition and five other males were in satisfactory condition, the Seattle Times said. Victims had gunshot wounds to the legs, chest, buttocks and abdomen.

Tyler Parsons, who works at a nearby coffee shop, told the newspaper that he saw victims suddenly falling to the ground. He said several people ran into his shop to take cover.

“The shooting was just kind of terrifying,” he told the paper.

It was the third shooting in the city centre in less than two days, the Seattle Times reported.

On Tuesday, a man was fatally shot at a shopping centre a short distance from Wednesday’s shootings. The gunman in that attack also fled the scene.

Last March, two people were killed and two others critically injured when a gunman opened fire in Seattle before driving off in a stolen car and causing a fatal crash.

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