The police said separately on social media platform X that they were conducting a large operation and were assuming a ‘static hostage situation’ (Picture: AP)
World News

German airport closed after armed man breaches security with his car

November 5, 2023
newszetu

Hamburg Airport has been closed while police deal with a ‘hostage situation’.

BERLIN (AP) — The airport in the northern German city of Hamburg was closed to passengers and flights were canceled Saturday night after a vehicle broke through security and entered the premises, the German news agency dpa reported.

Federal police said an armed man had broken through a gate with his vehicle and fired twice into the air with a weapon. Police also said the man’s wife had previously contacted them about a possible child abduction.

Police said later that the 35-year-old man had a 4-year-old child inside the car and that they assumed he was the father and had taken the child by force from the mother in a possible custody battle.

Federal police spokesman Thomas Gerbert told dpa that a large number of officers from state and federal police were on site and in the vicinity of the vehicle.

Police also said that a psychologist was talking with the man and that there was no indication other people could be harmed since all passengers had evacuated the airport.

In a string of updates on social media platform X, police said they were conducting a large operation and were assuming a ‘static hostage situation’.
They wrote: ‘We are currently assuming that a custody dispute is the background to the operation.

‘The LKA (Landeskriminalamt – or State Criminal Police Office) negotiating group and psychologists are on site.

‘There is contact with the person in the vehicle.’

All passengers were evacuated from the airport and work is ongoing to safely remove travellers still on board aircraft on the tarmac.

The drama unfolded at around 8pm when the Audi smashed through a security barrier at the north gate and began driving toward the planes, Bild reports.

After firing several shots into the air the driver is said to have hurled objects resembling Molotov cocktails from the window.

A spokesperson for the airport said 27 flights and around 3,200 passengers had been affected.

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