16-year-old taken to hospital following pepper spray detection at Rideau Centre

Ottawa Paramedic Service says a 16-year-old female was taken to hospital in stable condition after people inside Rideau Centre started experiencing sudden illness and difficulty breathing Saturday evening.

Ottawa Fire Services says its HazMat team was called to the scene at 8:30 p.m. to assist with identifying and clearing the substance that was causing the illness.

Firefighters say when they arrived on the scene, they started helping people evacuate the building.

The building was ventilated by firefighters and building staff after the HazMat team's readings confirmed that the substance was pepper spray.

In a statement to CTV News Ottawa Sunday, CF Rideau Centre said "we can confirm that a group of individuals deployed pepper spray at the centre yesterday."

The shopping centre also confirmed that it was evacuated by emergency responders following the incident, as a precautionary measure.

Nathan Froggett, Ottawa resident who was at the mall at the time the incident happened, adds that "everyone was likely pretty understanding of the situation" during the evacuation.

"We got here as they were evacuating," Froggett said. 

"This area is notoriously kind of bad. Like when I moved here, all my friends told me that Rideau Street, and especially on Rideau Center, it's kind of bad." 

The mall has since been re-opened and back to normal business operations.

"This was an unfortunate and isolated incident, and we continue to work with Ottawa Police Service on identifying the individuals involved," the shopping centre said in the statement.

The Ottawa Police Service is still looking to identify the suspects. The city's police service has not released any photos of the involved individuals.

With files from CTV News Ottawa's Natalie van Rooy