BBC

Police have praised the bravery of three women found alive on Monday evening in a house in Cleveland, Ohio, after they vanished about a decade ago.

Amanda Berry, who disappeared in 2003 aged 16, escaped with a neighbour’s help while her alleged captor was away.

Gina DeJesus, who went missing aged 14 a year later, and Michelle Knight, who vanished in 2002 aged about 19, were also rescued from the property.

A school bus driver and his two brothers have been arrested.

The three women were taken to hospital for a check-up and to be reunited with their relatives before being discharged on Tuesday morning.

A six-year-old girl also rescued from the house was believed to be the daughter of Ms Berry, Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba told a news conference.

‘Tied up’

FBI Special Agent Stephen Anthony said: “The nightmare is over. These three young ladies have provided us with the ultimate definition of survival and perseverance. The healing can now begin.”

“Yes, law enforcement professionals do cry,” he added.

He vowed prosecutors would “bring the full weight of justice” on those responsible in the “horrific case”.

School bus driver Ariel Castro, 52, and his two brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50, have been taken into custody.

Police Chief Michael McGrath said the women were believed to have been tied up at the house. Officials said they may also investigate other properties.

Ms Berry, now 27, escaped on Monday evening when a neighbour heard her screaming and kicking a door, while her alleged captor was out of the house.

Rescuer Charles Ramsey said he had helped kick in a metal door so that Ms Berry could climb outside.

In a recording of Monday’s emergency call, she says: “I’ve been kidnapped, and I’ve been missing for 10 years. And I’m here. I’m free now.”

‘Home seemed vacant’

Ms Berry identifies herself to the 911 dispatcher, saying she has been on the news for the past decade, and begging for help to arrive before her captor returns.

A neighbour, Charles Ramsey, tells reporters: “We had to kick open the bottom of the door”

Police Chief McGrath told Tuesday’s news conference: “Thankfully, due to Amanda’s brave actions these three women are alive today.”

Neighbour Anna Tejeda said she had refused to believe the young woman at first. “You’re not Amanda Berry. Amanda Berry is dead,” she said, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Other neighbours in the working-class district said they did not realise anybody was living at the house at 2207 Seymour Ave.

During the news conference, Public Safety Director Martin Flask said that in March 2000, Mr Castro had called the authorities to report a fight on his street, but no arrest was made.

In January 2004, police called at Mr Castro’s home, but no-one answered. They were alerted by children’s services after a child was left at a depot on a school bus that Mr Castro had been driving. Authorities concluded there had been no criminal intent.

Ms Berry had last been heard from aged 16 when she called her sister on 21 April 2003 to say she would get a lift home from her job at a Burger King restaurant.

Mother’s ‘broken heart’

In 2004, Ms DeJesus – who is now 23 years old – was believed to have been on her way home from school when she went missing.

Their disappearances made local headlines in Cleveland, and many assumed the girls were dead.

The case of Michelle Knight, who was older than the other women when she disappeared and is now 32, was less widely publicised.

Her grandmother, Deborah Knight, was quoted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper on Monday as saying the authorities concluded she had run away.

The victims’ families have responded with stunned joy. Sylvia Colon, a relative of Gina DeJesus, said they had never given up hope.

But Ms Berry’s mother, Louwana, died in March 2006, three years after her daughter went missing. A local politician said the mother had died of a “broken heart”.

In an extraordinary twist, it emerged that Ariel Castro’s son – also called Ariel, although he goes by his middle name Anthony – wrote an article about the disappearance of Gina DeJesus for his local newspaper in 2004.

Police have not commented on the case of a fourth missing girl, Ashley Summers, who disappeared in the same area in July 2007 when 14 years old.

At the scene Jonny Dymond BBC News, Cleveland

It is difficult to believe that Seymour Avenue could be home to such a crime: a quiet tree lined street with houses knocked about and sometimes boarded up, a red-brick church and traffic humming back and forth at either end.

But it is the residents and neighbours who are most surprised. Aurora Marti, 75, has lived across from 2207 Seymour Avenue for 27 years. Ariel Castro used to come and sit on her porch and chat with her. He took her granddaughter out for bike rides at a nearby park.

When the nearby area was being dug up in the search for Amanda Berry’s remains, he talked to her about it. All the while he is alleged to have held Amanda and two other women just across the road.

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