THIS is the horror moment a hijacked bus packed with terrified passengers ploughed into rush hour traffic in a dramatic chase.
A gunman is understood to have forced the bus driver to frantically speed through the streets of Atlanta, striking several vehicles along the way.
@BNONewsA hijacked bus was seen frantically speeding through rush hour traffic[/caption]
@BNONewsThe dramatic pursuit took place in Atlanta, Georgia[/caption]
APThe commuter bus was carrying 17 passengers, including the driver[/caption]
One passenger was gunned down as cops chased the bus for miles from the Georgia town and into neighbouring suburbs on Tuesday.
There were 17 people aboard during the pursuit, including the driver.
A 911 call made by a passenger remained open during the whole chase as dispatchers rushed to bring it to an end.
Hair-raising footage shows the red vehicle speeding through a quiet residential street, immediately followed by at least five police cars.
The bus is then seen taking a turn at a busy avenue and zigzagging through cars and trucks as news helicopters captured the intense pursuit.
Police said the Gwinnett County Transit bus took off after officers responded to a report of gunfire aboard the vehicle and a possible hostage situation just after 4.30pm.
Atlanta police chief Darin Schierbaum said on Tuesday evening: “Our initial call was of a gunman on the bus, that was holding hostages, and possibly there had been a discharged weapon.”
Atlanta authorities said the bus eventually came to a halt miles away in neighbouring DeKalb County when it went off the roadway.
Authorities then used a BearCat to “immobilise” the bus, DeKalb County Police Chief Mirtha Ramos told reporters.
Police chief Schierbaum identified the suspect as Joseph Grier, 39, and took him into arrest.
APOne person was fatally shot in the ordeal on Tuesday afternoon[/caption]
@BNONewsDramatic footage showed the bus speeding along a residential street[/caption]
Cops said Grier is a convicted felon with 19 prior offences and had a firearm on him.
“It was that information that our call takers and dispatchers were hearing that was fed initially to the Atlanta Police Department, and then to the Georgia State Patrol, and then our partners at Gwinnett … to help craft an end to our hostage situation,” Schierbaum said.
According to John Gilbert of suburban Dacula, his wife, Paulette, commutes to and from downtown Atlanta by bus three days a week.
He said she called him from the bus and informed him that one man had shot another.
Gilbert advised his wife to hang up the phone as he didn’t want his wife to die in case the shooter assumed she was on the phone with police.
He endured 45 agonising minutes in the dark before his wife finally called him once she was off the bus.
The shaken husband told CBS: “I felt like I had a hole in me.
“I’m just glad she’s alright.”
Police calls to the bus horror came shortly after a shooting at a food court in a downtown Atlanta.
Cops said a man shot three people before he was shot by an off-duty police officer, CBS reports.