Armed children end standoff in Idaho: reports
( 2001-06-03 11:32 ) (7 )

Five armed children barricaded in their rural mountain home for several days have surrendered to authorities, US media reported late Saturday.

CNN television reported that the children, who ranged in age from eight to 16, abandoned the rustic, single-story cabin where they were holed up since authorities arrested their mother on Tuesday.

The children's mother, JoAnn McGuckin, 45, was arrested for felony injury to a child on Tuesday because of allegedly squalid living conditions in her home in Garfield Bay, a small community near the Canadian border.

Authorities had said McGuckin, described as a paranoid schizophrenic, had denied the children food, heat and sanitary living conditions.

In addition to an arsenal of firearms, the family compound was guarded by a pack of as many as 27 dogs, described as being predominantly coyote, which had attacked neighbors and sheriff's deputies during the standoff.