Hamburg airport remains at a standstill as ‘hostage crisis’ continues

Air traffic at Hamburg airport remained blocked on Sunday by an apparent hostage situation on the tarmac, after the alleged kidnapping of a child by his father as part of a family dispute, according to local authorities.

“The police operation continues, air traffic remains suspended until further notice,” the management of the airport in northern Germany wrote on X – formerly Twitter.

“We have mobilised police psychologists and we are currently speaking with the perpetrator, we are banking on a negotiated solution,” police spokesperson Sandra Levgrün told the regional channel public television NDR.

She called it a “very good sign” that the father had remained in contact with the authorities “for so long”.

On Saturday evening, around 8:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. GMT), the gunman drove his car through an airport gate and onto the tarmac, shooting twice in the air and throwing two burning bottles, a police spokesperson said.

Police said they believed a “child custody dispute” was the cause of the incident.

According to the authorities, a father and his child remain in the car. The daily Bild newspaper has reported that the man is 35 years old and of Turkish nationality, and that the child is a little girl aged 4.

Police said the negotiations were taking place in Turkish.

Reports say the wife of the driver of the car had alerted the police of the child’s kidnapping to police.

On Saturday evening, 17 flights scheduled to land in Hamburg, with a combined 3,200 people on board, had to be diverted. On Sunday, 286 flights are in principle planned, carrying 34,500 passengers, but it’s unlikely any will be able to land until the situation is resolved.