Police in the southern U.S. state of Alabama have raided the bunker of a man who was holding a 5-year-old boy hostage, freeing the child and leaving the kidnapper dead.
The kidnapper, a 65-year-old retired trucker, had been holding the boy for nearly a week after abducting him from his school bus in rural Alabama and killing the bus driver.
The FBI said negotiations with the suspect were deteriorating. An FBI agent based in Mobile said the suspect was holding a gun and said officers feared the boy was in "imminent danger."
Police say they stormed the underground bunker Monday afternoon to rescue the kindergarten student. They say the boy was not physically harmed and is now being treated at a local hospital.
Police did not say how the kidnapper died. It is not clear what the kidnapper's motive was for carrying out the abduction.