ROCHESTER – A man who entered Hillary Clinton's local headquarters this afternoon with what appeared to be a bomb duct-taped to his chest took three campaign workers hostage. During a long standoff and negotiations with police, all three hostages escaped or were released uninjured.

The suspect, Leeland Eisenberg of Somersworth, surrendered to authorities peacefully. He may face federal prosecution as well as state charges including kidnapping, according to police.

Col. Fred Booth of the New Hampshire State Police said the device strapped to the man's chest was made with road flares and was not an actual bomb.

The surrender ended a crisis that paralyzed downtown Rochester all afternoon. The entire downtown "loop" was evacuated during the standoff at 28 North Main Street, across from Slim's Tex-Mex Restaurant.

A SWAT team officer leads a young woman from Hillary Clinton's office this afternoon. (MARK BOLTON)

The suspect walked out of Clinton's office shortly after 6 p.m. with his arms at his side. He put down a homemade bomb-like package and was immediately surrounded by SWAT team officers with guns drawn. He was put on the ground, handcuffed and taken two blocks to the police office.

The suspect was an older man known around the town to be mentally unstable, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press earlier. The official declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

The law enforcement official confirmed the name of the man as Leeland Eisenberg and said Eisenberg demanded to speak with Clinton. Authorities did not know what Eisenberg wanted to talk to Clinton about.

Eisenberg made local headlines in March when he held a news conference on the steps of Rochester City Hall to complain about a police policy of placing fliers in unlocked cars warning motorists to lock their doors.

"This is nothing more than a gimmick to get around the Constitution and go around in the middle of the night upon unsuspecting citizens in their own yard and search their vehicles," Eisenberg said.

Police, who said they were just trying to reduce theft from motor vehicles, changed the policy in response.

Sen. Clinton said after the surrender that she was "very grateful that this difficult day has ended so well. All my campaign staff and volunteers are safe." She will now travel to New Hampshire to meet with her workers and thank law enforcement for its efforts, cancelling a planned campaign trip to Iowa.

Clinton was in the Washington area at the time, but the confrontation brought her campaign to a standstill just five weeks before the New Hampshire primary, one of the first tests of the presidential campaign season. She canceled all appearances, as did her husband, and the security around her was increased as a precaution.

The office, in a town of 30,000, is one of many Clinton has around New Hampshire.

In an early afternoon interview with WMUR, Lettie Tzizik, an employee of a nearby medical supply company, said a woman who had been released with her small child by the intruder fled to her nearby worksite to seek help. The woman said a man with pepper-and-salt hair in his 40s with what appeared to be a bomb duct-taped to his chest had entered the office and ordered everyone onto the floor.

Tzizik said she was told there had been four volunteers and two full-time campaign workers in the office.

Authorities released little information about the hostage situation during the afternoon. New Hampshire and national news media reported conflicting information from a variety of sources about the number of hostages and, in some cases, the identity of the suspect.

Police close off the area near the Clinton campaign office in downtown Rochester. (AP/THEPORTSMOUTH HERALD, DEB CRAM)

Union Leader correspondent Clynton Namuo reported that an extraordinarily large police contingent had massed at the Ben Franklin crafts store parking lot at Wakefield and Union streets.

At about 3:15 p.m., Union Leader photographer Mark Bolton saw a Dover police department armored vehicle carrying SWAT team members move slowly towards the front of the campaign office. Police urged the intruder not to get excited as they dropped off a phone, then retreated. Shortly thereafter, a woman was seen running from the office. Authorities will not discuss her apparent escape or release.

At 4:25 p.m., Union Leader photographer Dave Lane reported that "hundreds" of police were in Rochester, including a roughly 25-car convoy of state police.

One of the top prosecutors in the state Attorney General's Office, Jeff Strelzin, was on scene. Attorney General Kelly Ayotte was en route in late afternoon.

In this image taken from AP Television News, SWAT team members escort a hostage out of Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign office in Rochester this afternoon. A man claiming to have a bomb walked into a Clinton campaign and took at least two hostages, police and witnesses said.

Other downtown buildings and offices were evacuated, including the district court and Barack Obama's local office. Hundreds of displaced workers remained in the area as onlookers. Area schools locked their doors.

Workers for Sen. Barack Obama's campaign office in Rochester also were evacuated, a campaign spokesman said. The office is four doors away from Clinton's. John Edwards' staffers also were evacuated.

Sen. Clinton's national campaign office released the following statement during the crisis: "There is an ongoing situation in our Rochester, NH office. We are in close contact with state and local authorities and are acting at their direction. We will release additional details as appropriate."

SWAT team members move away from Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign office in Rochester.

The Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani campaigns kept their offices in Manchester and Portsmouth open, according to their state campaign managers.

“It’s certainly something you never expect to happen,” said Jim Merrill, state campaign manager for Romney. “We’re wide open. It’s wide open here. It has to be in order to get your message out.

“You're inviting people off the street to come in, and they come in all the time to pick up a sign or get information. It’s the free exchange of ideas,” said Merrill.

Merrill called it “terrifying.” He said that regardless of political party, “We’re all doing this for a cause greater than ourselves. And we hope and pray they get through this safely.”