SWAT team converges on bunker where gunman is holding boy, 6, he took hostage on school bus after shooting dead driver

A police SWAT team is converging on an underground bunker in rural Alabama where a man is still holding hostage a six-year-old boy he abducted from a school bus on Tuesday afternoon.

The police standoff with the 65-year-old man, identified by several sources as Jimmy Lee Dykes, continues into its second day this morning as negotiators try to convince him to release the child - thought to be autistic - and surrender.

Dykes is believed to have stormed the school bus in Midland City, Alabama, about 3.30pm on Tuesday and shot the driver four times before taking the child. The driver, Charles Poland Jr., 66, later died of his wounds.

Witnesses say Dykes did not know the child and may have been trying to take a hostage to use as leverage over his legal problems.

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Panic: A suspect, identified as Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, allegedly held up a school bus Tuesday in Midland City, Alabama, shooting dead the bus driver and taking a boy hostage

Panic: A suspect, identified as Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, allegedly held up a school bus Tuesday in Midland City, Alabama, shooting dead the bus driver and taking a boy hostage

Command post: Officers from law enforcement agencies across the state - including the FBI and the state police - surrounded the bunker

Command post: Officers from law enforcement agencies across the state - including the FBI and the state police - surrounded the bunker

The Dothan Eagle reports that Dykes was supposed to appear in court on Wednesday for a bench trial over a menacing charge.

Dykes’ neighbor, James Edward Davis Jr told the paper that the man pointed a gun at him and his daughter in December, saying that they had driven into his yard.

A girl who was on the school bus when Dykes allegedly stormed it said he referred to his upcoming court case.

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