HALIFAX -- Police arrested a man in Halifax and recovered a firearm on a nearby public transit bus Thursday after receiving a report of someone carrying what appeared to be a rifle wrapped in fabric in the city's downtown.

Const. Pierre Bourdages of Halifax Regional Police said a bus driver found the firearm and called police at about 11 a.m. Bourdages did not know what type of gun was seized.

He said a man is alleged to have left the gun on the bus and then walk down Argyle Street nearby, where he was arrested minutes later without incident.

"We have that man in custody right now and we have a firearm that was recovered on the Metro Transit bus," he said. "It's too early to determine if the incident from this morning and this one are connected."

The arrest came after police said they received a single report at 8:36 a.m. of a man with a rifle on Duke and Brunswick streets, adjacent to the street where the gun was found.

Police also tweeted that they had received no indication of any threats being made.

Some schools in the area took precautions on the movement of students.

Doug Hadley of the Halifax Regional School Board said police advised Citadel High School to go into a hold and secure mode, which meant about 1,200 students could move freely inside the building but no one was allowed to leave or enter it.

Three elementary schools in the area also restricted the movement of students, with some keeping children inside at recess.

The Capital District Health Authority said on its Twitter feed that it had heightened security at all of its medical sites, but that appointments were continuing.

Premier Stephen McNeil said after the fatal shooting Wednesday of a soldier at the National War Memorial in Ottawa and the arrest in Halifax, he's asked his deputy minister to lead a committee to examine the security of all provincial government buildings.

"We need to make sure that people who come to work for the province of Nova Scotia can feel safe and secure any day," said McNeil.

The review will be conducted over the next few months and look at how quickly and effectively buildings can be locked down, among other things.

The Nova Scotia legislature was closed to the general public for a second day in a row Thursday and only people with official passes had access to the building.

McNeil said the security measures are no different than those taken by a number of other legislatures across the country.

"It's sensible to use caution and that's what happened," he said.

A number of public buildings downtown, including museums and the public archives, closed Thursday morning but reopened shortly after the arrest was made. Access to Halifax City Hall was also restricted.

New Democrat MP Megan Leslie commended the work of the police in Halifax a day after the soldier was killed in Ottawa.

" After yesterday's tragic and traumatic events in Ottawa, this news is especially disturbing," Leslie, who represents Halifax in the House of Commons, said in a statement. "However, it demonstrates that our law enforcement and first responders are on high alert across our country, and are ready to take swift action in order to protect the safety of Canadians."