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MURPHY, N.C. (Reuters) - The man suspected in a series of bombings in the southern United States, including at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and an Alabama abortion clinic, was captured on Saturday in the North Carolina town where he left his last trace, ending a five-year manhunt.

Eric Robert Rudolph was apprehended before dawn by a young police officer on patrol in Murphy, North Carolina, in the mountainous region where the suspect is believed to have been hiding out for five years, law enforcement officers said.

Attorney General John Ashcroft hailed the capture of "the most notorious American fugitive on the FBI's most-wanted list."

Rudolph, 36, faces federal charges in the July 1996 bombing at Centennial Olympic Park, which killed a Georgia woman at the Summer Olympics and injured more than 100 people. He is also suspected in bombings at an Atlanta abortion clinic and a gay nightclub, which caused injuries, but no fatalities.

Murphy is the western North Carolina town where Rudolph's abandoned pickup truck was found after the Jan. 29, 1998, bombing of the abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, in which an off-duty police officer was killed and a nurse injured

'NO ONE EVER GAVE UP'

"No one ever gave up on finding him, the search continued," FBI agent Chris Swecker told a news conference in Murphy, although he noted that in the last two years the hunt had been scaled back, with hopes pinned on a sighting by local police. "We always thought he was up here in the mountains."

A young local police officer came across Rudolph at about 4:30 a.m. (0830 GMT) at the back of a store while out on patrol. The officer, J.S. Postell, 21, said the man ran away from him and hid behind some milk crates, and he thought he might be dealing with a break-in attempt.

Postell told reporters he had no idea he had Rudolph in his clutches. He said he told the man to come out and he complied, offering no resistance. He was "very cooperative, not a bit disrespectful," Postell said.

Postell called in back-up from the police department and Cherokee County Sheriff's department. Rudolph initially gave a false name and then shortly after gave his real name. His identity was later confirmed through fingerprint checks, police said.

FBI agent Chris Swecker said Rudolph would probably be taken for an initial court appearance in Asheville, North Carolina, on Monday.

Swecker declined to speculate on whether Rudolph had been helped by others in evading the five-year manhunt, saying only that the investigation was still underway.

$1 MILLION REWARD

Cherokee County Sheriff Keith Lovin said Rudolph appeared in good health although he had lost weight. He had on a pair of blue work pants and a blue work shirt, with a camouflage jacket and a backpack when he was caught. Rudolph was not armed, but was carrying a large flash light.

The FBI had offered a $1 million reward for information leading to Rudolph's arrest. Postell, who grew up in the area and has been a policeman for under a year, said he did not want to comment on whether he thought he deserved the money.

"It's just in a days work, I don't really deserve any credit," he said. "I was just doing what I was hired to do."

But he added, "I think I put a lot of people's feelings at ease ... I'm glad I was in the right place at the right time."

In a brief statement, Ashcroft singled out local law enforcement for praise. "While it has been a long struggle, they never stopped, never yielded and never gave up," he said.

Rudolph was described by the FBI as a rugged survivalist, accomplished hiker, outdoorsman and hunter and was believed likely to have been holed up for years in the mountains.

The nurse disabled by the Birmingham blast, Emily Lyons, interviewed on CNN, said she would like to talk to Rudolph, to ask him: "Why, what was it that you picked that day, that place, for what purpose? ... What were you trying to tell everybody that day?"

In 1998, the FBI put Rudolph on its most-wanted list and raised the reward for information leading to his arrest to $1 million from $100,000.

Rudolph was believed to be a follower of the late Nord Davis and Christian Identity, a white supremacist religion that denounces abortion and homosexuality.

According to the FBI's "Most Wanted" posting about Rudolph, he was born on Sept. 19, 1966 at Merritt Island in Florida and had a noticeable scar on his chin. He was considered to be "armed and extremely dangerous," the FBI said.