Three people were hit by gunfire at a shopping mall outside Washington, D.C., in Maryland, police said on Friday, without specifying the condition of the victims.

The suspect in the shooting, which occurred at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, was at large, police said on Twitter.

A second shooting in which a woman was wounded was reported at a shopping center about 8 miles (13 km) away from the mall but it was not immediately known if the two were connected.

The victims in Bethesda - two men and a woman - were taken to a hospital, Montgomery County police spokesman Rick Goodale said. Several injured people were transported from the scene, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue said on Twitter.

The initial call in the Westfield shopping mall shooting came in at 11:13 a.m. as an assault outside of the mall, Goodale said.

The second shooting was reported at 11:50 a.m. at the Aspen Hill Shopping Center in Silver Spring, Montgomery County police said on Twitter.

"Both shooting scenes are in close proximity and a possible connection will be considered by investigators, but they have not yet made a determination if there is a connection," Goodale said.

Bethesda and Silver Spring are suburbs just north of Washington.

(Reporting By Suzannah Gonzales and Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Bill Trott)