Alabama school bus shooting: Man who shot dead bus driver takes child hostage in bunker

A rural property in Alabama is the scene of a tense standoff between police and a man who allegedly shot dead a bus driver and took a six-year-old child passenger hostage in an underground bunker.

Police say the man, who has not been identified, shot bus driver Charles Albert Poland multiple times on Tuesday afternoon in Midland City after he refused to let the child off the bus, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Associated Press reported the man took the child off the bus and is now holed up in an underground bunker.

Officials from multiple law enforcement agencies are at the scene, Reuters reported.

The incident comes amid a nationwide debate about gun control following the deadly shooting of 20 schoolchildren and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last month.

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