HAMILTON--A glue gun sparked a campus lockdown at Colgate University on Monday evening.

Witnesses reported that someone carrying what they believed to be a weapon entered the O’Connor Campus Center, known as the Coop, at approximately 8 p.m., according to a university press release. So campus safety started a lockdown, the release said.

“After thorough investigation, and with the assistance of the person in question, law enforcement identified the individual as a student who was using a glue gun for an art project, confirmed the misunderstanding, and released the campus from lockdown,” the release said.

A statement on the university’s website from Interim Dean Mark Thompson announced that students could gather at the chapel at 12:30 a.m. to be together after the “upsetting” evening. It also said that Colgate President Brian Casey has asked for a full report on events and details will be available as soon as possible on Tuesday.

The state police gave the all clear by 11:40 p.m., according to another posting on the website.

At 11:50 p.m., groups of students were wandering the campus after being freed from the lockdown.

An earlier post to Colgate’s website at 9:24 p.m. had confirmed that law enforcement was searching the Coop, which is located at the top of the hill on which Colgate is built. That post urged those on campus to shelter in place and those off campus to stay away.

A university tweet sometime before 8 p.m. had read, “Alert: There is an armed person at the Coop. Find a safe space and remain indoors. If you are off-campus, stay away.”

A campus safety officer, who did not identify himself because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said he had been off duty and called back to campus around 9 p.m. when emergency management measures went into effect. State troopers and a state SWAT unit, the county SWAT unit and officers from multiple police departments all responded, he said.

Two concerned parents had called the Observer-Dispatch earlier in the evening asking for information after receiving news from their children, who are students, that the university was on lockdown.