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A 15-year old girl was killed yesterday in a volley of shots that had Boxing Day bargain-hunters scrambling for safety in one of Toronto's busiest shopping areas.

"I think it's a day that Toronto has finally lost its innocence," Toronto Police spokesman Det. Sgt. Savas Kyriacou said at a news conference Tuesday.  "It was a tragic loss and a tragic day."

Bystanders fled the exchange of gunfire that also wounded six, emptying a crowded stretch of Yonge Street just north of the Eaton Centre.  Three women and four men were caught in the crossfire. 

"A number of those people who were injured were innocent bystanders who were out in the busiest day of the shopping year," Det. Sgt. Kyriacou said, adding that one of the male victims is still in critical condition.

Ten to 15 youths in their late teens and early twenties were involved in a dispute Monday prior to the shootings, he said. The two groups then began to exchange gunfire on the busy street.

Two people were arrested at a nearby subway station Monday, but investigators are still trying to determine if they played any role in the shootings. They have not been charged.

One group of bystanders ran into a Future Shop outlet across the street from the scene, vaulting the turnstile in their rush and hiding behind stacks of merchandise. At Sam the Record Man, within steps of the shooting, customers were told to lie flat.

"I've never been that close to gunfire," said Tom Wilson, who had been shopping near the front window of the music shop.

"I thought it was in the store, it seemed that close," he added, still browsing later in the evening while police investigated outside. "The next thing we were being told to get down on the floor."

The shooting occurred outside a Foot Locker outlet a few hundred metres north of the Eaton Centre. At a bookstore immediately beside the scene, employee Ulrich Holler said he heard a volley of shots. The store had been through this before and immediately locked the doors.

Prime Minister Paul Martin offered his condolences to the family of the victim in a statement Tuesday, saying he was "horrified" by the shootings.

 "The taking of innocent young life is always an outrage, but doubly so when it occurs during a season which is dedicated to celebrating the joys of family and peace.

"What we saw yesterday is a stark reminder of the challenge that governments, police forces and communities face to ensure that Canadian cities do not descend into the kind of rampant gun violence we have seen elsewhere," he said.

A witness described the shootings as a drive-by attack. The girl was pronounced dead and two others were in serious condition last night.

One of the wounded was an off-duty police officer, out shopping with his wife.

"I think everyone in Toronto will be angry about what happened here," said Police Chief Bill Blair, who called the incident "totally outrageous" in a late briefing.

"I think we have to win this battle," the chief said.

"I don't think we have any other choice."

The teenager is the 52nd person to have been killed by a gun in Canada's largest city during a year of violence that has rattled citizens and alarmed politicians. There have now been 78 homicides.

Earlier this month, Liberal Leader Paul Martin campaigned in one of Toronto's most troubled neighbourhoods, where he proposed a ban on handguns.In a statement, Mayor David Miller deplored the latest addition to the year's grim toll.

"The mayor is saddened and angered that such a brazen act of senseless violence would be perpetrated on Toronto's main street," the statement read in part.

"The mayor extends his condolences to the families and friends of the victims and urges anyone who may have witnessed this horrific crime to contact police so the perpetrators can be brought to justice."

A young boy who had been staying overnight at the nearby Delta Chelsea hotel with his brother and father said that he heard a car with a "tin-can muffler" rush away.

"Right after the shots I heard a car with an import muffler speed off," said 12-year-old Tristan Perry, a fan of modified foreign cars. "It did a little burnout and sped off."

An adult and a minor were taken into custody soon after the shooting, police said, and an illegal handgun recovered. There may be more suspects, Inspector Nick Memme added as he briefed reporters at the scene.

Witnesses said that police and fire trucks arrived within minutes to cordon off the scene. Many bystanders had fled, "running in all directions" in the words of one witness, but curious onlookers remained.

One shopper, 62-year-old David Etherington, said the shooting was for him a reminder of how violent Toronto had become.

"I could have been walking out of the store when it happened," he said. "I think recently I feel safer on the streets of New York than in Toronto."

Lakhwinder Dhaliwal, a security guard in a condominium near Jane and Finch, said he would have expected something like this to happen in that notoriously violent neighbourhood, not downtown. He heard eight or 10 shots fired and saw someone lying on the pavement. The person was wearing a red jacket.

"I feel terrible for people who have this happen in their neighbourhoods," said Sharon Singer, who has lived in east-end Toronto her whole life.

At the Future Shop outlet, sales representative Abhay Rawall said the store was full of people and he was walking a customer to the door with her merchandise when shots rang out, sparking chaos.

"I was helping her go out and I saw all these people rushing in," he said. "They were lying down behind the televisions, in the aisles."

Chief Blair was at the scene last night, part of a huge turnout that included mounted police and officers from several divisions.

With reports from Heba Aly, Unnati Gandhi, and the Canadian Press