A 17-year-old was shot in a downtown St. Paul apartment on Wednesday and responding officers applied a tourniquet to slow the bleeding.

The bullet struck the femoral artery in his thigh and he was bleeding heavily. Medical professionals told the police it would have been a life-threatening wound, due to blood loss, if officers hadn’t used the tourniquet quickly and properly, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman.

Officers were called on a report of a shooting at the apartment building on Cedar Street between Fourth and Fifth streets at 2:50 pm. Wednesday. The circumstances of the shooting are under investigation and no one had been arrested as of Thursday, Ernster said.