MANCHESTER -- A tense, four-hour standoff ended peacefully Monday night after a city man threatening suicide and accused of kidnapping his former New Boston girlfriend was talked into surrendering by police SWAT team negotiators.

Christopher Long, 29, stepped out the front door of 437 East High St. with his hands up and complied with police commands to lie on the ground as they handcuffed him and walked him to a waiting ambulance about 8 p.m., according to Lt. Shawn Fournier, commander of the SWAT team.

His arrest on charges of violating a domestic violence restraining order and felony kidnapping ended an intensive search that included, according to one hospital employee, a two-hour lock-down at Elliot Hospital and the closure of East High Street from Beacon to Belmont streets beginning about 4 p.m.

Neighbors stood and anxiously watched as SWAT team members with assault weapons and body armor took positions around the house, and listened as negotiators called to Long over a bullhorn.

Long’s now-estranged wife, Caitlyn Long, said she and her husband used to live next door at 431 East High St. She said the house is empty after being foreclosed on several weeks ago.

“He is facing a lot of criminal charges right now,” Caitlyn Long said shortly after she arrived at the roadblock police set up at Belmont and East High street. She said “something has happened with his girlfriend,” who she said is pregnant.

According to police, Christopher Long went to his former girlfriend’s New Boston home late Sunday or early Monday morning. The 18-year-old woman was home alone when Long threatened her with a firearm, tied her up and forced her into her car. He allegedly drove to Manchester, where he held her captive for several hours before she escaped near Elliot Hospital about 2 p.m., police said.

An Elliot Hospital employee who would not give her name said the hospital went in lock-down for about two hours.

Elliot Hospital officials said they helped police search at the hospital from about 1:50 p.m. to 3 p.m. No one was found, hospital security director Sam Auciello said.

“He never came into the hospital,” Auciello said.

Police said they located the girlfriend’s car at the hospital and impounded it.

Long apparently walked to his former East High Street neighborhood and went to the 437 East High St. house of his former neighbors, Gary Tkacz and his wife and daughter, Bri, 24.

The daughter — who had known Long for years when he lived next door — answered the door and let him inside, unaware Long was wanted by police, Fournier said. When police arrived about 4 p.m., Long tried to persuade her to conceal his whereabouts.

“She answered the door when police knocked. She automatically cooperated ...(and) stepped outside,” Fournier said. She was unharmed and faces no charges, he added.

Her parents, who watched anxiously from the end of the block as the standoff unfolded, later engaged in a tearful embrace with their daughter where, at one point, they were joined by Caitlyn Long.

The Tkacz family had no comment.

It was not known Monday night whether Long tried to enter his former 431 East High St. home, police said.

Police said there is no evidence Long was armed with a firearm when he entered 437 East High St. However, Long was suicidal and indicated he may harm himself through “cutting” or other means, Fournier said.

Residents of the tree-lined street of neat single- and two-family houses were relieved the standoff ended peacefully.

“I’m just glad everything ended well,” said neighbor Stacy Powers, who knows the family at 437 East High St.

“I cannot imagine what she went through,” Powers said of Bri’s mother. “My heart was in my throat.”

Long had an arrest record that included domestic-related assault and stalking charges and marijuana possession, according to a 2009 New Hampshire Union Leader report.

Long will be arraigned in 9th Circuit District Court today.