Children safe as missing US school bus found

A school bus with 11 children aboard disappeared in eastern Pennsylvania this morning and was found hours later in Maryland, its occupants unhurt, US authorities said.

The bus had picked up the students, aged six to 16, at Oley Valley High School in Oley, Pennsylvania, between 7.30am and 7.45am local time for the six mile trip to the Berks Christian School in Birdsboro.

It was found more than six hours later, parked outside a Family Dollar store in Landover Hills, outside Washington, 115 miles away.

Some of the students dressed in school uniforms were taken into the store while others waited on the bus, where one waved an American flag out a window.

The disappearance had sparked a massive hunt for the bus, including a search by helicopter. Conditions in the area were rainy and foggy.

The man driving the bus when it was found had a shotgun, Pennsylvania state police trooper Raymond Albert said.

‘‘He must have pulled over, maybe to get something to eat, and the children were waving out the window,’’ Albert said. ‘‘An off-duty police officer suspected something was wrong and took him into custody. And he (the driver) had a shotgun in his possession.’’

It was not immediately clear if the bus’s original driver this morning, identified as Otto Nuss, was the man driving when the bus was found. Nuss, who is in his early 60s, has worked for the bus company since September, Albert said.

Parents, accompanied by ministers and counsellors, were heading to Maryland to pick up the children, police said.