NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Queens campus of St. John's University was locked down Wednesday after police apprehended a masked man with a rifle on campus, the school confirmed in a written statement.
I-Reporter Thomas Rodrigues, a senior at St. John's University, said all of the school's gates were locked.
The lockdown was lifted at about 6 p.m., and hundreds of students streamed out of campus gates and buildings. The lockdown began about 2:30 p.m.
A student at the university, Omesh Hiraman of Queens, was apprehended after an off-duty police cadet saw him wearing a hooded sweatshirt and what police said was a Halloween-style mask.
Hiraman was carrying a black-powder rifle wrapped in a dark plastic bag, police said.
University Public Safety officers "quickly disarmed" Hiraman and turned him over to the New York Police Department, the statement said. No shots were fired.
After taking him into custody, campus and city police began searching for as many as two other potentially armed people, campus public safety officer Robert Armellino told CNN. Watch what it looked like on campus »
Students and faculty were instructed to stay inside campus buildings during the lockdown, according to the school. All classes on campus were canceled for the night.
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No injuries were reported.
Katie Beer, a law student who was on lockdown in the school's law library, said library employees told her police were going to come and search each room and person, and after they were cleared "they told us we'd be forced to leave," she said.
The school launched a new emergency cell phone text message alert system last week.
Beer said she did not receive a text message from the school about the lockdown because students and staff are required to sign up for the free service.
About 20,000 full-time and part-time graduate and undergraduate students are enrolled at St. John's five New York campuses -- Queens, Staten Island, Manhattan, Long Island and Rome. E-mail to a friend
CNN's Shannon Troetel and Brian Vitagliano contributed to this report
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