As of: November 5th, 2023 4:55 a.m
An armed driver entered the Hamburg airport premises on Saturday evening. According to police, the man has his four-year-old daughter hostage. Flight operations remain suspended.
An armed man broke through a gate with his vehicle around 8 p.m. and drove onto the airport apron, said Thomas Gerbert, spokesman for the federal police. The man shot twice into the air after entering the area. Pictures from the airport that evening showed a damaged barrier through which the man had apparently raced. The man’s wife had previously reported to the state police about possible child abduction, the spokesman said. Police spokeswoman Sandra Levgrün told NDR 90.3 that the man was apparently ready to hand the child over to the police. But this hasn’t happened yet.
Custody dispute apparently background to the crime
The gunman apparently broke through this barrier when he raced onto the airport apron.
The police assume that a custody dispute is the background to the hostage-taking. According to what we know so far, the girl that the 35-year-old man was with was staying with her mother in Stade on Saturday. 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, said a police spokeswoman.
Flight operations continue to be suspended
At 3:45 a.m. on Sunday, the Hamburg police wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that flight operations would remain suspended indefinitely. The police are asking passengers not to travel to the airport for the time being. The area is largely cordoned off. The airport cannot be reached or entered; the S-Bahn does not serve the airport. The Hamburg Airport advised passengers on its website Keep an eye on your flight status and contact your airline if necessary. The first flights on Sunday have already been canceled. There could be flight cancellations and delays throughout the day. According to the airport, six departures and four arrivals were canceled on Saturday evening. 17 arriving aircraft were diverted to other airports. A total of 3,200 passengers were affected.
State and federal police at the airport
Strong forces from the state and federal police are at the airport, said police spokesman Gerbert, including a special operations team and police psychologists. They were near the vehicle. This also includes the Federal Police’s Evidence and Arrest Unit. “They are very robustly equipped,” said Gerbert.
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Police negotiate with the hostage taker
The police say they are in contact with the gunman. “We have criminal psychologists on duty and we are currently talking to the perpetrator. We are relying on a negotiated solution here,” said police spokeswoman Levgrün early on Sunday morning. The man is “facing” the investigators, the spokeswoman said. In addition, it is an “absolutely good sign” that he has been in contact with the emergency services for so long. “He wants to talk to us and we initially rate that as very positive.” The man is being negotiated in Turkish. The suspicion that a second child was in the man’s control was not confirmed.
Man throws “some kind of Molotov cocktail”
The man threw two burning bottles out of the car, “some kind of Molotov cocktails,” said Gerbert. There was no damage and the airport fire department was able to extinguish the bottles.
Airport cleared, aircraft evacuated
The plane on the apron, under which the man had parked his car, was evacuated. The airport was later completely cleared and a large area was cordoned off, and the last aircraft standing on the tarmac were also evacuated. According to initial findings, there are no injuries. The police also do not see any acute danger to third parties. The passengers from the evacuated planes were taken to a nearby hotel.
Already two incidents this year
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 Hamburg airport was paralyzed for hours when they entered the area on bicycles.
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