  The giant radio galaxy M87 is the only extragalactic non-blazar object which
has been detected as a source of very high energy gamma-rays. It represents a
unique opportunity to study the phenomena of gamma-ray emission from a nearby
AGN. In this paper we report preliminary results from the observations of M87
taken with the imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope array VERITAS in
February, March and April 2007. An excess of photons above an energy threshold
of 250 GeV is measured with a sta tistical significance of more than five
standard deviations.
