Three men carrying "creepy clown" masks and a gun fled from the Westfield San Francisco Centre on Sunday afternoon, after being discovered by security guards during a routine grounds check.

The guards were reportedly walking through the emergency stairwells in the mall when they found the men, according to the San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco police spokesman Officer Carlos Manfredi told the Examiner SFPD was informed about the incident at about 3:15 p.m. and confirmed that the masks were of the "creepy clown" variety.

"They saw three suspects, two clown masks that they were holding, and one of the three brandished a gun," Manfredi told the Examiner.

The suspects were gone by the time SFPD arrived on the scene. Police said that the gun was not pointed towards the security and they they believed the suspects were possibly getting ready for a robbery inside the mall, KRON4 reported.

Initial reports said the men were wearing the masks outside the mall, but were later corrected by Manfredi via Twitter to say that the men were merely carrying the masks with them.

No arrests were reported.

On Aug. 10, the body of a 28-year-old man was found in the emergency-exit stairwell at that same mall, and while initially investigated as a homicide, has since been reclassified as a suspicious death. In addition, that part of Market Street between Fourth and Fifth streets was found to generate the most crime reports than any other block in the city.

This story also comes on the heels of a wave of "creepy clown" stories that have been happening around the country. The Bay Area has had its share of scary clown reports, from a supposed attempted kidnapping by a clown in Concord, to menacing social media threats made to Oakland, Fairfield and Sacramento schools.

SFGATE has reached out to the San Francisco Police Department and will update this article when they have more information.