Official: Hostage standoff ends with child safe, kidnapper dead

Midland City, Alabama (CNN) -- A 5-year-old child abducted from an Alabama school bus six days ago is safe and his kidnapper is dead, according to a law enforcement official.

The child appeared to be OK emerging from the ordeal Monday afternoon, the official said. Alabama state Rep. Steve Clouse told CNN that the boy was taken to a hospital in nearby Dothan.



One neighbor said he was outside when he was startled by the sound of an explosion.

"I head a big boom and then ... I believe I heard rifle shots," said Bryon Martin, who owns a home near the bunker where the boy had been held since Tuesday.

It was a loud noise that "made me jump off the ground," he said.

Two ambulances left the scene shortly before 4 p.m. (5 p.m. ET)

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