Baldwin Hills Mall Closed After Fight at Rap Concert : Violence: Police said crowds panicked after hearing what sounded like gunshots. There were no arrests or serious injuries.

Thousands of people fled in panic Saturday when fighting erupted at an outdoor rap concert at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, prompting police to declare a tactical alert and evacuate the mall and its parking lot. No arrests were made and no serious injuries were reported.

Los Angeles police responded to reports of an altercation and possible shots fired about 3:30 p.m., and 50 to 60 officers were dispatched to the mall at Martin Luther King Jr. and Crenshaw boulevards, said Officer Don Cox, a department spokesman.

Police could not confirm some witness accounts that gunshots were fired. Some of the 4,000 people attending the concert told police they heard gunshots, but others said they did not.

Although there were reports at the scene of a pregnant woman being trampled and other concert-goers stabbed, police said only a minor injury occurred--a man stepped on a piece of glass. One pregnant woman at the mall went into labor during the concert and was taken to a hospital by an ambulance, said Reginald Paige, acting watch commander of the LAPD’s Southwest Division.

“The point is that no one was hurt,” Paige said. “So we’re happy with the outcome.”

After responding to the alert, police swept into the mall and parking lot and started evacuating the area. “From that point, it was basically crowd control and getting people to leave,” Paige said,

The rap and rhythm and blues concert, called “Spike Lee’s School Daze Summer Jam,” was sponsored in part by actor-director Spike Lee, who did not attend, police said. The event was scheduled to last from noon to 6 p.m. in an upper-level parking lot, but police cut the show short before 4 p.m.

Cox said the crowd outside got unruly and panicked after fighting broke out and attendees heard what sounded like several shots being fired. Police said it was unclear what prompted the fighting, which began when several youths confronted each other without exchanging words.

Sterling Crockett, manager of the Footlocker store in the mall, said the brawl quickly spread to inside the mall, where several youngsters began fighting in a densely packed crowd.

“After that, it just got out of hand and people started running, into the stores and everywhere else,” Crockett said. “It was basically just too many people for that mall to handle.”

Crockett said he did not hear any gunfire, but saw one woman being helped outside, apparently after being trampled while on an escalator. He also said several fights broke out in his store when people began running for cover.

Regina Fitzgerald, a mall employee, said she did not hear shots being fired.

“Nothing happened, really,” said Fitzgerald. “They were having the concert and there was a crowd. It seemed like there was going to be an altercation and people ran. But nothing happened.”