US: A man suspected of a string of bombings in the United States, including one at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, was captured on Saturday in the North Carolina town he vanished from five years ago, ending one of the most intensive manhunts in US history.
Eric Robert Rudolph was picked up before dawn by a young police officer on patrol in Murphy, North Carolina, the remote mountain region where he is believed to have hidden out since 1998, law enforcement officers said.
Attorney general John Ashcroft hailed the capture of "the most notorious American fugitive on the FBI's most-wanted list".
Rudolph (36) faces federal charges in connection with the July 1996 bombing at Centennial Olympic Park, which killed one woman and injured 100 people.
He is also suspected in the bombing of an abortion clinic in Alabama, in which an off-duty police officer was killed and a nurse injured, and blasts at an Atlanta abortion clinic and a gay nightclub.
Murphy, a town of about 1,500 people, was where Rudolph's abandoned truck was found after the 1998 bombing of the Alabama clinic.
The police officer who confronted Rudolph had no idea who he was, but believed he might have been involved in a break-in. Rudolph initially gave a false name but he subsequently identified himself. He was not armed when arrested.
The FBI would not say yesterday whether Rudolph was cooperating with authorities or had asked for a lawyer. He may make a court appearance as early as today.
Police declined to speculate on whether Rudolph had been helped in evading the intense and expensive manhunt.
There had been a $1 million reward offered for Rudolph's capture. Rudolph was described as a rugged survivalist and was believed to have been holed up for years in the mountains.
In an area that traditionally distrusts outsiders and authorities, some people were sympathetic to him.
He was believed to follow Christian Identity, a white supremacist religion that opposes abortion, homosexuality and foreigners.