The hostage situation at Hamburg Airport ended after more than 18 hours. The armed man who took his daughter hostage in a car on the tarmac has been arrested.
Incoming and outgoing air traffic at the German airport was suspended from Saturday night due to a hostage situation. A 35-year-old man had driven his car through the barriers of the airport grounds and parked his car under an aeroplane. The Hamburg police have confirmed he was arrested shortly after noon on Sunday.
"The hostage situation is over. The suspect had left the car with his daughter. The man was arrested by the police without resistance. The child appears to be unharmed," the Hamburg Police said on X (formerly Twitter).
On Sunday afternoon, Hamburg Airport had not yet reopened, and the access roads and terminals were still closed, Hamburg Airport wrote in an update on X.
"We are in close consultation with the security services about when they will be available again. There will be further cancelled and delayed flights," the airport noted.
On Saturday, 27 flights had to be cancelled, affecting some 3,200 passengers. On Sunday, 286 flights were scheduled with some 34,500 passengers. Two Brussels Airlines flights (one to Hamburg and one in the opposite direction) were also cancelled.
Custody dispute
Flights to and from Hamburg were first grounded on Saturday evening around 20:00 after the man, who was armed, drove his car through the airport boundaries and parked under an aeroplane.
He demanded to be flown to Turkey with his child, according to German media. The police then entered into a conversation with the man. Presumably, there was a dispute over custody of the girl. The 4-year-old was forcibly taken the girl from her mother, with whom she was staying in Stade, Lower Saxony earlier in the day on Saturday.
The man was reportedly carrying a loaded firearm and possibly explosives of an unknown type. Protecting the child was therefore the top priority for the police.
All the while, air traffic to and from Hamburg had been suspended. Travellers were asked not to come to the airport as the area was cordoned off.
