UPDATE: 5:45 p.m.

Twenty people were killed and more than two dozen injured in a shooting Saturday in a busy shopping area in the Texas border town of El Paso, the state's governor said.

Among the possibilities being investigated is whether it was a hate crime, the police chief said. Two law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity identified the suspect taken into custody as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius. El Paso police haven't released his name, but confirmed the gunman is from Allen near Dallas.

Police said another 26 people were injured and most were being treated at hospitals. Most of the victims were believed to have been shot at a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall, they said, adding that the store was packed with as many as 3,000 people during the busy back-to-school shopping season.

"The scene was a horrific one," said El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen, who described many of those hurt as having life-threatening injuries. He also said police found a post online that may have been written by the suspect — one reason authorities are looking at whether it was a hate crime.

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UPDATE: 3:56 p.m.

At least 15 people were killed in a shooting Saturday in a busy shopping area in the Texas border town of El Paso, and a 21-year-old man was taken into custody, law enforcement officials said.

Two law enforcement officials identified the gunman as Patrick Crusius of the Dallas area. One of the officials told The Associated Press that at least 15 people were killed. The officials were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation publicly, and both spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Hospital officials said another 23 people were injured and being treated.

Most of the victims were shot at a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall, El Paso police Sgt. Robert Gomez said at a news conference. He said the store was packed with as many as 3,000 people during the busy back-to-school shopping season.

"This is unprecedented in El Paso," said Gomez, who added that many of the injured had life-threatening injuries.

Police responded in the midmorning to an active shooter scene at the mall, near Interstate 10 on the east side of the city, and were advising people to stay away from the area and to look for missing family members at a school being used as a reunification area.

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UPDATE: 1:20 p.m.

Multiple people were killed and injured and at least one person was in custody after a shooting rampage Saturday at a shopping mall, police in the Texas border town of El Paso said.

Police responded in the early afternoon to an active shooter scene at the Cielo Vista Mall, which is near Interstate 10 on east side of the city, and were advising people to stay away from the area.

Shortly after, Sgt. Enrique Carrillo, a police spokesman, said there were multiple victims, that a suspect was in custody and there was no longer danger to the public.

El Paso, which has about 680,000 residents, is in West Texas and sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the shooting "a heinous and senseless act of violence" and said the state had deployed a number of law enforcement officers to the city.

A family of three was one of a dozen waiting outside a local bus station, trying to get back to their car, in blocked-off Walmart parking lot.

"I heard the shots but I thought they were hits, like roof construction," said Adriana Quezada, 39, who was in Walmart with in the women's clothing section with her two children.

She said she saw four men, dressed in black, wearing shirts, moved together firing guns indiscriminately.

"I saw four men, shooting everywhere," Quezada said "I told my son, those are gunshots."

Her daughter, 19, and son, 16, threw themselves in the ground, then ran out of the Walmart through an emergency exit. They were unhurt.

White House staff said President Trump was briefed on the shooting and spoke about it with Attorney General Barr and Governor Abbott.

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UPDATE: 12:30 p.m.

Multiple people were killed and three people are in custody after shooters went on a rampage Saturday at a shopping mall, police in the Texas border town of El Paso said.

Police responded in the early afternoon to an active shooter scene at the Cielo Vista Mall, which is near Interstate 10 on east side of the city, and were advising people to stay away from the area.

Shortly after, Sgt. Enrique Carrillo, a police spokesman, said suspects were in custody and there was no longer danger to the public.

El Paso, which has about 680,000 residents, is in West Texas and sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico.

Presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke appeared a bit shaken as he appeared at a candidate forum in Las Vegas on Saturday shortly after news of the shooting in his hometown was reported.

O'Rourke said he had called his wife before taking the stage and said the shooting shatters "any illusion that we have that progress is inevitable" on tackling gun violence.

The Democrat said he'd heard early reports that the shooter might have had a military-style weapon, saying we need to "keep that (expletive) on the battlefield and do not bring it into our communities."

"We have to find some reason for optimism and hope or else we consign ourselves to a future where nearly 40,000 people a year will lose their lives to gun violence and I cannot accept that," O'Rourke said.

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ORIGINAL: NOON

Police in the Texas border city of El Paso rushed to a shopping mall on Saturday in response to reports of shooting.

The department tweeted that there could be multiple active shooters in or near the Cielo Vista Mall and asked the public to stay away. The mall complex is near Interstate 10 and on El Paso's east side.

Police haven't said whether anyone had been shot, though there were unconfirmed reports of multiple victims.

Further details weren't immediately available.

El Paso, which has about 680,000 residents, is in West Texas, across the border from Juarez, Mexico.