'He has a gun': Video captures dramatic moment inside Toronto school thrown into lockdown

The jarring moments leading up to a Toronto school being thrown into lockdown after a reported gun call have been captured on video.

Video obtained by CTV News Toronto purportedly shows the events leading up to the lockdown at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute, near Don Mills Road and Overlea Boulevard, on Thursday.

In it, a number of students appear to be seen fighting in a gym. One individual can then be heard screaming "he has a gun, he has a gun" repeatedly.

The footage then shows students exiting the gym.

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The school was placed under a lockdown after police were called around 12:25 p.m., though that order has since been lifted.

“There was information that a gun was seen in the school ... I can't comment on the circumstances that led up to the events,” Toronto police Insp. Lori Kranenburg told reporters at the scene.

“All I can tell you is that we were called here for a person with a gun, that an investigation was commenced and that one student was taken into custody. Charges have not yet been laid.”

Police have not provided any other details about the incident, including whether or not a weapon was recovered.

Kranenburg said that the school was placed under a lockdown “for the safety of staff and students.”

She said that while there was “information that a gun was seen in the school,” police are not able to confirm whether a firearm was in fact present at this time.

“The investigation is continuing,” she said.

Nearby Valley Park Middle School was also briefly placed under a hold-and-secure order after a number of Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute students sought safety there, police said.

The lockdown at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute on Thursday represents just the latest weapon-related call at a TDSB school.

Last week, a gun was reportedly fired inside a bathroom at an East York secondary school, resulting in a bullet ricocheting and ending up in a shoe belonging to a staff member.

A 13-year-old boy is also facing charges after he allegedly pointed a replica toy gun and demanded money from students at a middle school in Etobicoke on Tuesday.

“I think it is important to know that this is not a single school board issue. This is an issue that involves the school board as part of the community and it is going to take a lot of effort, a lot of work and a lot of action between the school board, all its community partners and all levels of government (to address it). But that is happening right now. The conversations are happening right now,” TDSB spokesperson Sherry Schwartz-Maltz told reporters on Thursday.