Associated Press Prince George's County police officers stand next to a missing school bus from the Oley Valley School District in Pennsylvania in the parking lot of a shopping center yesterday in Landover Hills, Md. The driver of the bus, who had a loaded rifle, took 13 children on a more than 100-mile odyssey yesterday that ended when he gave himself up to an off-duty police officer, according to police.

LANDOVER HILLS, Md. - A school bus driver with a shotgun took 11 children on a more than 100-mile odyssey yesterday that ended when he was arrested by an off-duty officer who saw the youngsters waving frantically from the windows.

What the driver was intending to do was not immediately clear.

None of the children were hurt.

The bus picked up the students, ages 6 through 16, at Oley Valley High School in Oley, Pa., between 7:30 and 7:45 a.m. for the six-mile trip to the Berks Christian School in Birdsboro, Pa. The bus never showed up and school officials could not raise the bus by radio.

After a frantic, six-hour search by police helicopter and police cruisers in rainy, foggy weather, the bus was found 160 miles away, parked outside a discount store in Landover Hills near Washington.

"All the children are OK," Oley Township Police Chief George Endy said.

The driver, identified as Otto Nuss, had a shotgun when the bus was found, 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."

Linda Vizi, spokeswoman in the FBI's Philadelphia office, said Nuss faces federal kidnapping charges.

During the search for the bus, distraught parents arrived at the Oley municipal building to await word.

After the driver's arrest, some of the students dressed in school uniforms - burgundy tops and tan pants or skirts - were taken into the store. Others waited on the bus, where one waved an American flag out a window.

Nuss had worked for the bus company since September, Albert said.

Cindy Calcagno, assistant transportation director for the Oley Valley School District, said she spoke with Nuss about 7:30 a.m. and he seemed fine.

"I had no inclination there, and nothing from the children either," she said. "He loved the kids."

Calcagno said Nuss had not driven a school bus before this year. He would have had to pass a commercial driver's test, a criminal background check and a child abuse check to be hired, she said.

The school district, which is responsible for transporting private school children, contracts with Quigley Bus Service. An official at Quigley referred all questions to police.

Police said parents, accompanied by ministers and counselors, were heading to Maryland on a bus to pick up their children.

The Berks Christian School has about 200 students from kindergarten through 12th grade, teacher Frank Love said.