An armed man broke into the apron at Hamburg airport. He has his daughter with him as a hostage. Thousands of people at the airport are being brought to safety.
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, this was probably preceded by 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 will be removed from the planes and accommodated in a nearby airport hotel. A police spokesman said on Saturday evening that a total of 3,200 passengers were affected.
Flight operations suspended
Early on Sunday, the airport announced that flight operations would remain suspended indefinitely due to the hostage situation. “There will be flight cancellations and delays throughout the day,” the airport said. The police ask that passengers do not travel to the airport for the time being. According to the airport, 286 flights – 139 departures and 147 arrivals – with around 34,500 passengers were actually planned for the entire day.
Contact with hostage taker
The Hamburg police negotiated with the man all night long. The presumably 35-year-old man was being negotiated in Turkish, said police spokeswoman Sandra Levgrün. “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.” However, even after more than twelve hours at the airport there was no breakthrough. “We talk, we talk, we talk – and try to find a peaceful solution that everyone can live with,” said Levgrün on Sunday morning.
Four-year-old child apparently unharmed in the car
The four-year-old girl held hostage in the car by the 35-year-old man appears to be physically unharmed. “We are currently assuming that the child is physically well,” police spokeswoman Levgrün told dpa on Sunday morning. The police have eye contact with the child. Telephone calls with the perpetrator – “the child can be heard in the background” – also suggested this. The child is probably doing well physically, said Levgrün: “But I don’t want to speculate about what it looks like mentally.”
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. Levgrün said in the morning that the mother was now in Hamburg near the airport.
It is assumed that the father “took the child away” from the mother and possibly violently put him in the car before driving to Hamburg and onto the airport tarmac.
Passengers describe fears
“Scary”, “creepy” – that’s how passengers who were taken out of their planes describe their impressions. A young woman who wanted to fly to Mallorca on Saturday evening told the German Press Agency: She saw a fire and at first thought it would be put out quickly. Then she heard there was a shooting spree, and that was scary. In fact, the armed man had thrown incendiary bottles as he drove through the airport, which started fires on the apron.
Another woman who was also planning to fly to Mallorca said she was only allowed to take her handbag with her when the plane was evacuated. Everyone behaved calmly, but it was also scary because they didn’t know what was going on.
A passenger said that when she boarded she saw that there was a fire on the apron. Two minutes before the planned takeoff, the announcement came: “Please calmly leave the plane.” Then suddenly everyone was told to hurry up.
No injuries among the passengers
Shortly before midnight, the police had no information that anyone had been injured. 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 dpa. There is no longer any danger to uninvolved people.
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 were affected. At that time there were calls for security to be strengthened.
Airport sees no failures in security
Despite the hostage-taking, Hamburg Airport sees no failures in securing the area. “Securing the site complies with all legal requirements and largely exceeds them,” an airport spokeswoman told the dpa. However, given the size of the airport – which is equivalent to almost 800 football fields – it cannot be ruled out that “highly criminal, unauthorized access to the security area can be achieved using brute force.”
The spokeswoman emphasized: “In order to ensure the safety of air traffic, in addition to structural measures, alarm chains have also been established that worked perfectly.” Flight operations were stopped immediately after unauthorized access and the perpetrator was located. “Further information on security-related details is not possible,” explained the spokeswoman.
According to the airport spokeswoman, the analysis of the incident with the Last Generation activists – they cut through the outer fence and then got onto the tarmac on bicycles – did not provide any new information. “There are no new requirements for critical infrastructure facilities yet,” said the spokeswoman. The airport is currently testing new camera and fence sensor systems. “In addition, the patrolling of the fence by security forces has been sustainably increased.”