Boy, 5, safe after hostage drama

Feb 4 2013

A five-year-old US boy has been safely released after a days-long stand-off between police and his abductor.

Police in Alabama said that Jim Dykes, the man who abducted the boy from a school bus after fatally shooting the bus driver, is dead.

Officials said they stormed the bunker to rescue the child being held hostage there after his abductor was seen with a gun.

Steve Richardson with the FBI's office in Mobile said negotiations deteriorated and 65-year-old Dykes had been seen with a gun.

Officers believed the child was in imminent danger and entered the bunker.

It was not immediately clear how Dykes died.

He had been accused of snatching the boy off a school bus and killing the driver six days ago.