Hamburg airport remains closed as police deal with ‘hostage situation’
2023.11.05 08:25
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© Reuters. Police secure the area after a man drove through a barrier onto the grounds of the city’s airport with a child in his car in Hamburg, Germany, November 5, 2023. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer
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FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Hamburg airport remained closed on Sunday, authorities said, as police dealt with a hostage situation involving a suspected armed man in a custody dispute.
The airport closed for all takeoffs and landings on Saturday evening after police arrived in large numbers on the scene to deal with a man who drove through a barrier onto the grounds of the airport with a child.
The car with the 35-year-old man and 4-year-old girl was parked under a Turkish Airlines plane, a police spokesperson said.
“We must currently assume that he is in possession of a live firearm and possibly also explosive devices of an unknown type,” the police posted on Sunday on the social media platform X.
Negotiators are in contact with the person in the car and communicating through a translator in Turkish, police said.
Police said that their main priority was the protection of the child, who they said was physically fine based on their current information.
Police said the child’s mother had told them the father had been in contact with her.
Police would not confirm their earlier statements that the man had fired shots.
Hamburg airport authorities said that 286 flights with around 34,500 passengers had been scheduled for Sunday.
