'Help me! I'm Amanda'

The three Cleveland women found alive after vanishing in their own neighbourhood for about a decade were rescued from a house that authorities tried to visit several years ago.

Three brothers, one of them a school bus driver who owns the Cleveland house where the three women and a child were rescued on Monday, are under arrest, police said.

A relative of one of the women - teenagers when they disappeared - described their survival as "a miracle" as Cleveland authorities and residents grappled with how they went unnoticed for so long.

Police said a six-year-old girl rescued with them is believed to be the child of Amanda Berry, now 27, whose screams for help alerted a neighbour and led to their release following her frantic 911 call.

"Help me! I'm Amanda Berry ... I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm here. I'm free now," Berry can be heard telling a 911 operator in a recording of the call released by police.

Police arrived to find Berry, along with Gina DeJesus, now 23, who vanished in 2004, and Michelle Knight, now 32, who had been missing since 2002.

Berry had last been seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant the day before her 17th birthday in 2003, and DeJesus was last seen walking home from school.

After their rescue, the three women were taken to hospital, where they were reunited with family and friends. They were released yesterday.

"If you don't believe in miracles, I suggest you think again," DeJesus' aunt Sandra Ruiz said yesterday.

Ariel Castro, 52, a school bus driver, was arrested, as were his brothers Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50, police said.

"We believe we have the people responsible," Cleveland deputy police chief Ed Tomba said.

Police said they were investigating how the women could have gone unnoticed in the neighbourhood, where houses are close together, typically separated only by a driveway.

Children and Family Services authorities went to the house in January 2004 after Castro had left a child on a school bus, Mayor Frank Jackson said. They "knocked on the door but were unsuccessful in connection with making any contact with anyone inside that home," he said.

Tomba said Castro was "interviewed extensively" during that investigation and no criminal intent was found regarding the child left on the bus.

During her 911 call, Berry can be heard giving the dispatcher Castro's name and urging police to come quickly. She indicated she knew her disappearance had been widely reported in the media.

The neighbour who came to her aid told police he heard Berry trying to get out of the house and helped her kick out the bottom of a locked screen door.