According to the German Federal Police, the armed man broke into a gate with a car at around 8pm on Saturday night and entered the airport courtyard. There he shot into the air and threw “a kind of Molotov cocktail” out of the car. The man had his four-year-old daughter in the car – according to police, this was apparently preceded by a custody dispute with the mother.
The airport was immediately closed in a large area and both terminals were evacuated. All passengers from the planes were evacuated and accommodated in a hotel close to the airport. A total of 3,200 passengers were affected, a police spokesman said on Saturday night.
Flight operations suspended
In the early hours of Sunday, the airport announced that flight operations would be suspended indefinitely due to the hostage situation. “There will be flight cancellations and delays throughout the day,” the airport said. Police ask that passengers do not travel to the airport for now.
+++UPDATE 5:45am+++
The police operation on the Hamburg flight plan continues. Flight operations will remain suspended until further notice. The police ask all passengers and those who pick them up NOT to come to the airport. Access roads are largely blocked. pic.twitter.com/3TvptqecZZ– Hamburg Airport 🕊 (@HamburgAirport) November 5, 2023
An airport spokeswoman said six takeoffs and 21 landings would normally be expected between the airport’s official closure at 8:24 pm and the end of operations at 11 pm. A total of 286 flights with around 34,500 passengers were originally planned for Sunday.
“Scary”, “scary” – this is how the passengers who were removed from their planes described their impressions. A young woman who intended to fly to Mallorca on Saturday night told dpa: She saw a fire and at first thought it would be put out quickly. Then she heard there was a shooting. In fact, the gunman threw incendiary bottles while driving at the airport, which caused fires on the tarmac.
picturedesk.com/Bodo Marks The airport has been cleared and people have been asked not to arrive
Contact with kidnapper
Hamburg police negotiated with the man, probably 35 years old, all night in Turkish. “We are counting on a negotiated solution here,” a police spokeswoman told dpa.
She was positive about the fact that the discussions 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 assessed this as very positive.”
Wife called the police
The man’s wife, who was said to have been at the Stade, near Hamburg, had already reported to the state police about a possible child abduction, according to the police spokesman. “We are currently assuming that a custody dispute is the background to the operation,” Hamburg police tweeted shortly before midnight. A police spokeswoman said in the morning that her mother was now in Hamburg, near the airport.
picturedesk.com/Bodo Marks A large police presence was deployed at the airport
The father is presumed to have “taken the child” from the mother and possibly put him in the car using force before driving to Hamburg and the airport tarmac, a police spokeswoman said when asked. Just before midnight, police had no information that anyone had been injured. This also applies to the abuser and the child he has with him.
Security incidents before
Hamburg airport had already been closed in October, but at that time due to a threat of attack on a plane from Tehran to Hamburg.
In July, climate activists from the “Last Generation” group closed Hamburg airport for hours. Flight operations had to be halted 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 beefed up.