HARPER WOODS, Mich. -- Harper Woods Middle School was on lockdown Wednesday afternoon after a handgun was found in a locker.

School officials said they began searching the school after they heard students buzzing that a teen may have brought a gun to school.

"At about 12:30, in conversations with students and through cell phones and text messages, we began to get an understanding that there was potentially a handgun on campus," said Harper Woods Middle School Superintendent Todd Beedderwolf.

Teachers and staffers searched the 700-student school and a quick-thinking teacher found a handgun inside of a locker in the physical education locker room.

Watch: Weapon Found Inside Harper Woods School

"We're reviewing student access to that locker, to that locker room," said Beedderwolf. "Certainly as the investigation continues we hope to identify who it was that brought the gun on campus and also who had knowledge it was on campus for all of us."

The gun will be dusted for fingerprints, according to police.

Eight students were questioned about the gun and police said they are preparing to issue possession of a firearm charges against two 15-year-old students.

One student told school officials he brought the gun for protection.

All after-school activities Wednesday were canceled.

The school said it alerted parents to the gun scare through the school's fan-out system and posted an alert on the school's Web site.