AGI – A family dispute over custody of her daughter keeps all air traffic at Hamburg Airport in Germany under control. The airport is still closed after the alleged kidnapping of the 4-year-old girl by her father. Last night around 8 p.m. the shooter – a 35-year-old Turkish citizen living in Lower Saxony – entered the airport in his car, an Audi, without license plates, broke through a gate, shot twice in the air and threw two burning bottles, a type of Molotov cocktail.
He then stopped in front of a Turkish Airlines plane and from there negotiations with the authorities began. The wife had previously contacted the police to report the child’s abduction. The man is said to have asked the authorities about it to be able to go to Türkiye with her daughter. In the meantime, airport management said police operations will continue and traffic will continue to be suspended.
“We have mobilized police psychologists and are talking to him in the hope of a negotiated solution,” police spokeswoman Sandra Levgrun told NDR. In his opinion, it was an “excellent sign” that the father had remained in contact with the authorities “for so long”. It was necessary on Saturday evening Divert 17 scheduled flights to Hamburg, with 3,200 people on board. 286 flights with 34,500 passengers were planned for Sunday.
But this Sunday there is still a stalemate in the middle of the day: the German police negotiators have not yet managed to convince the man and the flights remain suspended. “We assume that the little girl is physically fine,” police spokeswoman Sandra Levgruen told NDR. “We conclude that from what we can see and from the phone conversations with the man, in which the little girl can be heard in the background.”
“We talk and talk and talk again” with the father and “we’re trying to find a peaceful solution,” he added.
Reprint reserved © Agi 2023