The hostage-taking at Hamburg airport continues. An armed man has his four-year-old daughter in his power. The police negotiated with him all night. Numerous flights are also canceled on Sunday.
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 kind of Molotov cocktail” out of the car. He stopped under a Turkish Airlines plane, which was immediately evacuated. The man has his four-year-old daughter in the car – according to the police, this was apparently preceded by a custody dispute with the mother.
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.
A damaged barrier through which the man is said to have driven his car at the airport
© Jonas Walzberg / DPA
“Scary”, “creepy” – this is 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 (DPA): 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 was driving on the Incendiary bottles were thrown out at 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.
Flight operations at Hamburg Airport continue to be suspended
On Sunday morning, the airport announced that flight operations would remain suspended until further notice due to the hostage situation. “The situation at the airport remains unchanged, the police operation continues,” the airport said. The police tweeted: “Negotiations are continuing. The operational situation continues.” She also asked that passengers not travel to the airport for the time being. Large-scale traffic measures are required for the duration of the operation, as the police announced on X early in the morning. The airport cannot currently be reached. The S-Bahn does not go to the airport either.
Meanwhile, the number of flights canceled due to the hostage-taking at Hamburg Airport continues to rise. According to information from the airport on Sunday morning, 126 flights have already been canceled since operations actually began at 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Five arrivals were redirected to other airports. The canceled flights include 70 departures and 56 arrivals. There are actually 286 flights planned for the entire day – 139 departures and 147 arrivals – with around 34,500 passengers. According to the airport, it is unclear how many of these can actually take place.
The police are still on site with a large contingent. A DPA reporter observed how new emergency vehicles continued to arrive at the airport throughout the night and early Sunday morning, and other emergency services drove away again. Police dogs are also on site. A drone circles over the airport. The airport area is largely cordoned off.
Four-year-old girl apparently physically unharmed
The Hamburg police negotiated with the 35-year-old man all night long. “We have good contact with the perpetrator,” said a police spokeswoman late in the evening. 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.”
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 police spokeswoman Sandra Levgrün on Sunday morning.
The police announced via The top priority is protecting the child.
According to police, the four-year-old girl held hostage by her father is physically unharmed. “We are currently assuming that the child is physically well. This is what the eye contact we have at the moment tells us and the phone calls with the perpetrator, where the child can be heard in the background,” Levgrün told the German press -Agency at the airport.
You should therefore first assume that everything is physically okay with the child. “I don’t want to speculate about what it looks like mentally,” said Levgrün.
The background to the hostage-taking was apparently a custody dispute
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. A police spokeswoman 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 put him in the car using force before driving to Hamburg and onto the airport tarmac, a police spokeswoman said when asked.
Shortly before midnight, the police had no information that anyone had been injured. This also applies to the perpetrator. “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.
Hamburg Airport was recently closed several times
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. A total of 286 flights with around 34,500 passengers were originally planned for Sunday.
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.
Note: This article is continually updated.