The child at the centre of a six day hostage crisis has been rescued unharmed by FBI agents.
FBI agents have stormed an underground bunker in the US state of Alabama where a five-year-old boy had been held hostage for nearly a week, rescuing the child and leaving the boy's abductor dead.
Steve Richardson with the FBI's office in Mobile, Alabama, said that negotiations had deteriorated with 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes.
Dykes had abducted the child from a school bus a week earlier after fatally shooting the driver.
"At approximately 3.12pm (8.12am AEDT) FBI agents safely recovered the child who has been held hostage for nearly a week," special agent Richardson said.
"Within the past 24 hours negotiations had deteriorated and Mr Dykes was observed holding a gun. At this point FBI agents, fearing the child was in imminent danger, entered the bunker and rescued the child."
Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 65-year-old retired trucker and Vietnam War veteran is dead, six days after taking a five-year-old boy hostage. Picture: Alabama Department of Public Safety/AFP
The boy, known as Ethan, was taken to a hospital in nearby Dothan. Officials have said the child has Asperger's syndrome.
However, it was not immediately clear how Dykes died.
Daryle Hendry, who lives about half a kilometre from where Dykes' bunker was located, said he heard a boom on Monday afternoon, followed by what sounded like a gunshot, all around the time officials said they stormed the bunker.
Neighbours described Dykes as a man who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property, and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a firearm.
Armed law enforcement personnel station themselves near the property of Jimmy Lee Dykes in Midland City, Alabama. Picture: AP
He returned to Alabama about two years ago, moving on to the rural tract about 91 metres from his nearest neighbours.
Ronda Wilbur, a neighbour of Dykes who said the man beat her dog to death last year with a pipe, said she was relieved to be done with the stress of knowing Dykes was patrolling his yard and willing to shoot at anyone or anything that trespassed.
"The nightmare is over. It's been a long couple of years of having constant stress," she said.
Authorities said Dykes gunned down 66-year-old bus driver Albert Poland Jr before taking the boy from the bus. Poland, who was buried on Sunday, has been hailed as a hero for protecting the other nearly two dozen children on board from harm.
"This man was a true hero who was willing to give up his life so others might live," Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said.
Federal and local law enforcement officers gather at their trucks after the hostage crisis ended in Midland City, Alabama after officials stormed a bunker to rescue a 5-year-old child being held hostage. Picture: AP
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