(AP) - A town official says a gunman at anupstate New York high school has taken the principal hostage.

Pine Plains Town Supervisor Gregg Pulver tells CNN that studentsat Stissing Mountain High School are safe. The school is about 90miles north of New York City.

The school remains on lockdown. Pulver says police are incontact with the gunman. He says the gunman is an adult, not astudent, and is contained to one room with the principal.

Pulver says the school has about 500 students and 100 staffmembers.

Margaret Hart, who lives across the street from the school, sayspolice cars are in the neighborhood and helicopters are flyingoverhead. She says the area around the school has a lot of woodsand "a lot of places to hide."