During class at a district school in Hamburg-Blankenese on Wednesday, two boys came into the classroom and threatened a teacher with some kind of firearm. One of them stood in front of her and aimed the weapon at the woman, says police spokesman Holger Vehren. Then the two boys disappear. The headmaster alerts the police. A large contingent searches the school. It was only after a good four hours that the police gave the all-clear.
Almost at the same time, there was another alarm about a threat situation at another school in the Bahrenfeld district. The management of the primary school said that an afternoon care teacher was threatened there. The officers arrested two 12-year-olds and a 13-year-old as well as a teenager aged 14 in the early afternoon. Police seize two suspected toy guns. According to the police, one of the 12-year-olds and the 13-year-old could also be considered for the crime at the Blankenese school. Police did not say whether one of the toy guns was used. It is also unclear which school those arrested go to.
Parents in fear and terror
The first reports about the incident in Blankenese frightened parents. He got a message from a friend and immediately rushed to school, says bus driver Najib Himat. “I informed the control center that I couldn’t continue,” reports the worried father of a 13-year-old student. Colleagues drove him to school. He stands in front of a police cordon and hopes to see his son again quickly.
The teacher is said to have been threatened while teaching almost 20 students in an 8th grade class. What the perpetrators wanted from her is unclear. They then fled. The police initially launch a search in the area. Streets are blocked off and a helicopter circles in the air. But the search is fruitless. At the time, it is not certain whether the two young people even left school.
1000 students in school
That’s why the police begin searching the district school, where around 1,000 students are said to have been at the time of the crime. Special forces go from classroom to classroom. The students are gradually taken by bus to a collection point in a nearby Bundeswehr barracks.
Concerned parents also pick up their children from other schools in the district, for example from a neighboring elementary school. The police are trying to reassure her that there are no indications of further locations, she said on X (formerly Twitter). At the time, nothing was apparently known about the incident at the elementary school in Bahrenfeld. A citizen hotline will be set up for parents and relatives. A crisis intervention team from the German Red Cross is deployed at the collection point.
Four hours of uncertainty
The search lasted more than four hours. Dozens of police cars are parked in the streets with their lights flashing. Two drones are circling above the school building. Around 400 officers are on duty. Little by little more students can be seen at the windows, some shouting to each other. The police spokesman cannot say how serious the danger really was. Unfortunately, it often happens that young people use airsoft guns or fake weapons. The spokesman has no information about any injuries. Vehren cannot say how the threatened teacher is doing. The district school has around 1,150 students – around 400 of them in the upper secondary school alone. They are taught by more than 120 teachers.
The elementary school in Bahrenfeld is also being searched by a larger contingent to ensure that the four boys are no longer on the premises. A little later, civilian investigators arrested the three children and the teenager. The school management assured the parents: “It is important for you to know that there was no danger to your children and that the police did not assume there was any danger.” She assumes that the situation will not repeat itself because the perpetrators are known by name and have been arrested.
This is the second major operation in just five days for the special forces of the Hamburg police. Just last Saturday evening, officers were called to the airport because a 35-year-old had kidnapped his four-year-old daughter in Stade (Lower Saxony) and driven onto the airport grounds with the child in the car. He broke through several barriers, fired a pistol and threw two incendiary devices. According to the public prosecutor’s office, he stated via the police emergency call that he had a bomb in his vehicle and was demanding that he and his daughter leave the country for Turkey. Only after 18 hours of negotiations did he give up and allow himself to be arrested.
