Amanda Berry and Georgina Dejesus are pictured in this combination photograph in undated handout photos released by the FBI. Photograph: Reuters
Alan: Check out the videotape (below) of the black fellow who recounts the rescue. The last minute of the tape speaks volumes about America's psycho-sociology.
LIVEThree women missing for more than a decade, Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, have been found alive in a house in Cleveland, Ohio. Follow the story live
Four people are in hospital associated with the events at the home in Cleveland today, according to a physician.
Dr Gerald Maloney, an emergency department physician at the MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, told CNN just now that four people were in hospital. He confirmed when asked that the four were connected with the events of this evening but would not elaborate on the age or identity of the individuals.
Updated
The man credited with rescuing Amanda Berry has said she had a "little girl" with her when she escaped the house.
Charles Ramsey, who lives in a neighbouring property to where the women were found, told a local news channel that he heard a woman shouting.
"[I] heard screaming. I'm eating my McDonalds, I come outside, I see this girl going nuts trying to get out of her house, so I go on the porch and she says: 'Help me get out, I've been here a long time'."
"So I figured it was a domestic violence dispute," Ramsey said. He said he kicked the door of the house to free her.
"And she comes out with a little girl and she says: 'Call 911, my name is Amanda Berry," Ramsey said.
The video, from a local news channel, is below.
"When she told me it didn't register. Until I got to call 911. I thought: 'I'm calling 911 for Amanda Berry? I thought this girl was dead.' And then she gets on the phone and she says: 'Yes this is me'."
Ramsey said police then arrived and entered the property. "That girl Amanda told the police: 'I ain't just the only one. There's some more girls up in that house,'" Ramsey said.
"So they go up there 30 or 40 deep, and when they came out it was just astonishing," he said.
Ramsey said he had lived in the neighbourhood for a year and saw the neighbour in the house where the women were found "every day".
Updated
The women are in "fair condition" and are being assessed by medical staff, a doctor told a press conference in Cleveland hospital just now.
Dr Gerald Maloney, an emergency department physician, would not go into details about the patients.
"We're in the process of evaluating their medical needs. They appear to be in a fair condition at the moment," Maloney said.
"They are able to speak with us. Beyond that I can't really go into any further details," he added.
Asked how medical staff felt, Maloney said: "This is really good because this isn't the ending you usually hear to these stories so we're very happy."
He said staff were "assessing their needs and the appropriate" treatment.
Updated
Three women, at least two of whom had been missing for a decade, have been found alive at a house in Cleveland, Ohio.The women – Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and a third whose name has not yet been released – were found after Berry was able to make a 911 call. A 52-year-old man is in custody. Police in Cleveland are due to hold a news conference shortly, and we will be covering this developing story live.
Here's what the Associated Press has filed about the background to the case.
Berry disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King fast food restaurant. DeJesus went missing at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later.In January, a prison inmate was sentenced to 4 1/2 years after admitting he provided a false burial tip in the disappearance of Berry, who had last been seen the day before her 17th birthday. A judge in Cleveland sentenced Robert Wolford on his guilty plea to obstruction of justice, making a false report and making a false alarm.Last summer, Wolford tipped authorities to look for Berry's remains in a Cleveland lot. He was taken to the location, which was dug up with backhoes.Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in March 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.Two men arrested for questioning in the disappearance of DeJesus in 2004 were released from the city jail in 2006 after officers did not find her body during a search of the men's house.One of the men was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail on unrelated charges, while the other was allowed to go free, police said.
In September 2006, police acting on a tip tore up the concrete floor of the garage and used a cadaver dog to search unsuccessfully for DeJesus' body.
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