Malls across Canada, United Kingdom and the United States are being threatened to be attacked by Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda linked terror group.
The nation's largest malls, including Mall of America in Minnesota, were threatened over the weekend in a video which referred to a 2013 attack by the terrorist organization on an upscale shopping mall in Kenya that killed 67 people, CNN reported.
Even though Homeland Security, who helps protect public places like shopping centers, might have its budget of $40 billion run out this week if Congress fails to act, U.S. officials are taking the threats seriously.
However until now, there has been no credible or specific evidence suggesting an attack on malls, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said, warning shoppers to be "particularly careful" nonetheless.
"There's additional security, so I'm just not too worried about it", said mall patron Andrew Leizens.
"I refuse to let those people change the way I live my life", said Dave Thibault.
But Kansas City shoppers expressed some fear over the Somalia-based terror group's threats, according to KCTV.
"It makes you think otherwise you know, you start thinking about security, fire escapes, who you're with, and it makes you think a bit more when you're going into shopping malls," Jaymee Highcick said.
"I'm going to carry on my business and if I stumble into something, I'm going to do my duty as emergency management, but that's all you can do," said Doug Fields, a volunteer fire fighter in the Kansas City metro area.
Particularly, the bigger danger could be the possibility of homegrown extremists in the U.S. being inspired by the latest video and getting encouraged to take action near their malls, the FBI said.
"The odds of them actually being able to travel here and carry out an attack are very low, and though the FBI and TSI and intelligence agencies will be alerted for that, what they are really worried about is what we see in other organizations, especially ISIS, is the ability to inspire someone to take action," said Michael Tabman, a retired FBI agent.
Following the deadly 2013 attack in Nairobi, Kenya, the FBI and Homeland Security staged mock attacks at 400 malls around the country, NBC News reported.
But currently, Homeland Security's money remains in a limbo because some Republicans have refused to fund the agency without also rolling back President Obama's orders of delaying deportation for up to five million immigrants.
"If we go into government shutdown, some 30,000 employees at my department will be furloughed, including a lot of headquarters personnel who I count on daily to stay one step ahead of groups like ISIL", said Johnson, adding that the other 200,000 employees would be forced to work without pay.
