5th-graders taken hostage unharmed

A gunman who had been on the lam for a week held 11 fifth-graders hostage at a school Friday but was tackled outside a classroom without any harm to the children.

Randall Hofland, 55, had released all the students and had turned over a loaded gun to one of the young hostages before he was arrested at Stockton Springs Elementary School, authorities said.

The gunman walked into a fifth-grade classroom in the small coastal town around the start of the day. State police were called at 8:42 a.m. and Hofland was arrested about 20 minutes later after he was tackled by a state trooper.

Hofland was the object of a manhunt that began on the night of Oct. 23 after he allegedly pointed a gun at a police officer who stopped him during a seat belt safety check. Hofland drove off, then abandoned his car.

Atlanta

Cheetah escapes cage – midflight

A Delta baggage worker got a bit of a fright before Halloween when she opened a jetliner’s cargo door and found a cheetah running loose amid the luggage.

Two cheetahs were being flown in the cargo area of a Boeing 757 passenger flight from Portland, Ore., to Atlanta on Thursday when one escaped from its cage.

The airline summoned help from Zoo Atlanta, and experts rushed to a closed airport hangar and tranquilized the escaped animal and took both big cats to the zoo.

Both 1-year-old female cheetahs were on their way from the Wildlife Safari Park in Winston, Ore., to the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee.

The good news for passengers: The escaped cheetah didn’t damage any of their luggage.