Dramatic scenes at Hamburg Airport: According to the Federal Police, an armed man broke through a gate with a car around 8 p.m. on Saturday evening, drove onto the airport apron, shot into the air and threw “a type of Molotov cocktail” out of the car. The man has his four-year-old daughter in the car – according to the police, there was apparently a custody dispute with the mother.
Thousands of people are affected
The airport will immediately be closed across a large area and the two terminals will be evacuated. All passengers on the planes are taken off the planes and accommodated in a nearby airport hotel. A police spokesman said a total of 3,200 passengers were affected.
Contact with hostage taker
The Hamburg police announced late in the evening that they were in contact with the hostage taker. “We have good contact with the perpetrator,” said a police spokeswoman. Negotiations with the presumably 35-year-old man are taking place in Turkish.
“We are relying on a negotiated solution here,” she told the German Press Agency. She was positive about the fact that the talks had dragged on for so long: “That’s an absolutely good sign,” she emphasized. “He is facing us. He wants to talk to us and we initially rate that as very positive.” A special police task force and police psychologists are also on site.
Wife from Stade gets in touch
The man’s wife, who is said to have been in Stade near Hamburg, had previously reported to the state police about possible child abduction, as the federal police spokesman said. “We are currently assuming that a custody dispute is the background to the operation,” tweeted the Hamburg police shortly before midnight.
It is assumed that the father “took the child away” from the mother and possibly put him in the car using force before driving to Hamburg and onto the airport tarmac, a police spokeswoman said when asked.
No injuries among the passengers
Shortly before midnight, the police had no information that anyone had been injured. This also applies to the perpetrator and the child he has with him. “We are not aware at the moment that anyone is injured,” said a spokeswoman when asked.
At that point, the police no longer saw any acute danger to third parties. The Turkish Airlines plane under which the man had parked his car was evacuated, a police spokesman told the German Press Agency. There is no longer any danger to uninvolved people.
All flights canceled
The airport’s homepage said in the evening: “Due to a federal police measure, take-offs and landings are currently not possible.” The airport spokeswoman said six take-offs and 21 landings would normally have been expected between the official closure of the airport at 8:24 p.m. and the end of operations at 11 p.m. There was initially no information available for Sunday.
Security incidents before
Hamburg airport had already been closed in October, but at that time because of a threat of attack on a plane from Tehran to Hamburg.
In July, climate activists from the group Last Generation shut down Hamburg airport for hours. Flight operations had to be stopped for several hours for safety reasons. Thousands of passengers, including many families with children, were affected. At that time there were calls for security to be strengthened.
