Turn integers into an array

Well I'm using the (MySQL: id is int data type)

GROUP_CONCAT(id) AS ids 
Example output = 1,2,3,4,5; 

and then turn whats returned into an array but it keeps coming back as a blob, I need the integers to be individually split.

Array
(
[0] => 1,2,3,4,5
)

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot

$numbers = explode(',', $numbers[0]);