Local police in Germany have reported that an 18-hour-long hostage situation at Hamburg Airport, which involved a young child, has finally come to an end.
On Saturday night, a 35-year-old man breached a security barrier, entered the airport tarmac, and parked his vehicle, which had his four-year-old daughter inside, beneath an airplane.
He eventually gave himself up to the authorities “without resistance”, according to police, and was arrested.
“The child appears to be unharmed,” they wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The incident resulted in the disruption of multiple flights departing and arriving at the airport. Although operations have now resumed, there are significant delays.
The incident began at approximately 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) when an individual drove their car onto the airport’s apron, the area designated for parking aircraft.
According to the police, the suspect fired his weapon twice into the air and threw incendiary devices from the vehicle. It remained unclear whether the man possessed any explosives.
Subsequently, it was clarified that he halted his vehicle near a commercial flight that was fully loaded with passengers and ready to take off. Fortunately, all passengers on board were safely evacuated.
Reports from local media suggested that he had parked his vehicle beneath a Turkish Airlines plane.
As a result of the situation, hundreds of other individuals waiting for their flights at the airport had to be accommodated in nearby hotels.
Hamburg police spokeswoman Sandra Levgruen stated earlier on Sunday that the individual in question disagreed with certain decisions made by authorities regarding custody arrangements and wished to travel to Turkey with the child.
“He speaks about his life being a heap of shards,” she told German broadcaster ZDF.
Following the incident, the authorities said the man had been in an “exceptional psychological situation due to custody disputes with his ex-wife”.
Following a heated argument, he reportedly took their daughter, prompting her mother to contact emergency services and file a complaint of potential child abduction.
This isn’t the first time the man, a Turkish national, has faced allegations of abducting the young girl. Last year, he came under investigation for traveling to Turkey with her without proper authorization. Subsequently, the child was returned to Germany by her mother.
“I wish the mother, the child and her family a lot of strength to cope with this terrible experience,” Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher wrote on X after the hostage situation ended.
The airport said it was working to resume operations as quickly as possible. A total of 286 flights with about 34,500 passengers had been scheduled for Sunday, it said earlier.