A student was taken into custody and an airsoft weapon seized, following a report of a student seen with a gun in his backpack at a northwest Calgary high school.

Worried parents were gathered outside Sir Winston Churchill High School, which was surrounded by more than a dozen police vehicles late Monday afternoon. The school was locked down around 3 p.m., and the lockdown was lifted around 4:45 p.m.

No shots — airsoft or otherwise — were fired.

School was over at the time of the lockdown, police had initially said, but later confirmed the lockdown happened close to the end of the school day, with the majority of the school's population still in the building.

The Calgary Board of Education asked people to avoid the area to allow police space to work.

The CBE said parents would be updated when the lockdown was lifted.

Police later said a 15-year-old youth has been charged with possessing weapons dangerous to the public peace.