According to the local police, the hostage situation at Hamburg Airport, which involved a young child, has ended after eighteen hours.
On Saturday night, the father, who was 35 years old, drove through a security barrier and onto the airport tarmac while his daughter, who was four years old, was in the car. He then parked the vehicle under a jet.
Hamburg Airport hostage drama ends after 18 hours
He eventually turned himself in to the authorities “without putting up any resistance,” according to the police.
They commented on X (Twitter) that the infant “appears to be unharmed.”
The incident resulted in the delay or cancellation of a number of planes entering and departing the airport. Since then, operations have picked back up, although there are still severe holdups.
It was around 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) when the suspect drove his car onto the airport’s apron, which is the place where planes are often parked. This marked the beginning of the incident.
According to the police, the suspect fired two shots into the air with his pistol and then tossed flaming bottles from his vehicle. It was not obvious whether the individual had any bombs on his person.
They explained in a later statement that he stopped the vehicle in the area where a commercial aeroplane that was packed with people was getting ready to take off. Everyone who was on board was successfully extracted from the vessel.
According to the local media, he allegedly parked his car underneath a Turkish Airlines plane.
The airport had to make hotel accommodations for the hundreds of additional passengers who were waiting for planes there.
A spokesperson for the Hamburg Police Department named Sandra Levgruen stated earlier on Sunday that the guy wanted to travel to Turkey with the child and was dissatisfied with some of the decisions that the authorities had made regarding the custody arrangement.
She stated her comments to the German broadcasting company ZDF. “He speaks about his life being a heap of shards,” she said.
The authorities stated after the occurrence that the guy had been in an “exceptional psychological situation due to custody disputes with his ex-wife.”
After an argument, they claimed that he had taken their daughter, and the child’s mother immediately called the police and lodged a complaint alleging that an unauthorized person had taken the child.
It is not the first time that the man, who is a citizen of Turkey, has been accused of kidnapping the young girl; in fact, it is the second time. After travelling to Turkey with her without permission the year before, he became the subject of an investigation. After some time, the mother took the child back to Germany with her.
After the hostage situation was resolved, Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher posted a message on X wishing the mother, the child, and her family “a lot of strength to cope with this terrible experience.” “I wish the mother, the child, and her family a lot of strength to cope with this terrible experience,” he said.
The airport reported that it was making efforts to restart operations at the earliest opportunity. According to what was stated before, a total of 286 flights carrying approximately 34,500 people were planned for Sunday.
