Dozens of police officers are now involved in the investigation of a deadly Saturday night shooting at Toronto's Yorkdale Shopping Centre, which left one male victim dead and another seriously injured.

The mall was previously scheduled to be closed for Easter Sunday. Toronto police remain at the scene today, with officers pulled in from nearby divisions to help with the investigation.

Police say the shooting occurred at the southwest end of the mall at about 8 p.m. Saturday, about an hour before the mall would normally close.

Det. Rob North told reporters overnight that police were seeking "five or six suspects" in connection with the shooting.

"The initial confrontation began inside the mall," he said. "There were no shots fired inside the mall. The two groups of individuals left the mall and shots were fired outside of the mall."

Police said it was too early in the investigation to offer any further information about the victims, the suspects or whether the incident might be gang related.

Victim's body removed

The victim's body was removed from the mall early Sunday morning, local media reported. Police have not released a name or age of the male who was killed.

No innocent bystanders were targeted or wounded, North said, though he indicated police believe this was not a random act of violence.

"It's pretty crazy – I don't know," eyewitness Michael Troya told CBC News.

Troya said the shooters "don't have any morals and they don't really care what happens or what people think about them."

The police investigation involved reviewing video footage from the mall and speaking with eyewitnesses.

"There would have been closed circuit television inside the mall and outside, as well," Martin said.

As well, hundreds of vehicles remained cordoned off inside the mall parking lot as part of the investigation.

'Huge crime scene'

"This is a huge crime scene and Yorkdale is a massive mall," the CBC's Louise Martin reported.

"The parking lot is very, very large," she added.

At one point, all the mall exits were closed and hundreds of people were forced to remain inside the mall.

"Like all Torontonians, we were shocked by the incident that occurred," Yorkdale officials posted on the mall's Twitter feed, adding that "we take security at Yorkdale very seriously." In several tweets, mall officials thanked both the police and the public.

The mall, which is located along busy Highway 401, is popular with shoppers.

The official Yorkdale website says the mall "ranks as one of the highest performing shopping centres" on the continent. It has more than 200 stores, including the high-end retailers Tiffany & Co., Holt Renfew and Cartier.

The violence on Saturday night is not the first time that a shooting has occurred on the mall property.

In April 2009, a security guard was shot while attempting to arrest two robbery suspects. But he was wearing a safety vest that police credited with saving his life.

The incident comes almost 10 months after a shooting in the city's centre at the Toronto Eaton Centre in which one man died at the scene and another was fatally wounded and died in hospital days later. Five other people were wounded, but survived the shooting.