As Black Friday bargain-hunters shopped inside, two men were injured just after noon Friday in a stabbing-turned-gunfight outside Willowbrook Mall.

Both were airlifted to hospitals in the Texas Medical Center for treatment, according to the Houston Police Department.

The popular north Houston shopping center off Tomball Parkway was filled with thousands of Black Friday deal shoppers when the incident happened. No one besides the two men were hurt, police said.

A spokeswoman for GGP, the mall's Chicago-based property manager, said the "isolated incident occurred in the parking lot near Sears" and directed further inquiries to HPD.

"We take safety and security very seriously," Lindsay Kahn, GGP's senior manager of public relations, wrote in an email.

HPD spokeswoman Jodi Silva said the melee began as a fight.

"The first male stabs the second male," she said.

The stabbed man responded by firing a gun at his attacker, Silva said.

The stabbed man was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital in stable condition. The man with the gunshot wound went to Ben Taub Hospital. His status was unknown, Silva said.

Police did not release the name of either man. No charges have been filed and no motive has been determined, Silva said.