Police are investigating a stabbing at a popular shopping centre in Adelaide's CBD on Friday afternoon.
SA Police said a security guard was stabbed in the abdomen when he tried to stop four suspected thieves at a City Cross Arcade sports store just before 5:30pm.
The four males fled the scene, police said.
The man received non-life threatening injuries and was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital by paramedics for treatment.
A section of the shopping centre was closed and people were asked to avoid the area as police conducted a search.
South Australian government spokesman, Tom Koutsantonis, said he was "horrified" by the stabbing.
"I mean that's just an appalling act to happen in our CBD. Police are investigating, it's now a matter for police," he said.
"That sort of behaviour is completely unacceptable in our central business district, indeed anywhere."