A lockdown at a high school in West Vancouver on Wednesday afternoon ended without incident. (CBC)

A report of two youths armed with what appeared to be a rifle triggered a full lockdown at a West Vancouver high school Wednesday, police said.

A nearby resident called police at about 1 p.m. PT, saying two teenagers were walking toward the school and one of them was holding a rifle-like object, West Vancouver police said.

Police contacted officials at Rockridge Secondary School near Caulfield Village Mall, and "the school went into a full and immediate lockdown," Cpl. Fred Harding said.

Dozens of police cars surrounded the entire block, and a helicopter was circling overhead.

About 860 Grade 8 to 12 students attend the school at 5350 Headland Dr., according to the school's website.

Harding said officers conducted two room-to-room searches at the school but did not find any weapons. There were no reports of shots being fired.

West Vancouver police Cpl. Fred Harding says students and staff at the locked-down Rockridge Secondary School were all safe. (CBC)

Police also did not find the two teenagers the 911 caller referred to.

Police lifted the lockdown shortly after 4 p.m., and students were released from the school.

Harding said all students and staff are safe.

"I am very confident the students who are inside right now are safe," he said.

Grade 12 student Gregory Gerryts said he and his peers were told to stay in their classroom and keep away from the windows.

"At first, no one really believed it, that it was a real lockdown, so everyone was really jittery. But then we actually saw the police walking and just out the windows there were cops everywhere," Gerryts told CBC News by telephone.

Another witness told CBC News that students were told to get under their desks while police made a sweep of the school.

Groups of nervous parents waited across from the school.

Cathy Drake said that she was in phone contact earlier in the afternoon with her daughter Taylor Kennedy, who is in Grade 9.

"She just texted me… and she's very scared. All the parents are outside," Drake said.