The police at the airport in Hamburg this afternoon detained a man who had been holding his daughter hostage there since Saturday evening. The police reported on the X social network. The child is apparently fine and the airport announced the resumption of operations in the early evening.
The background of the case was apparently due to disputes between the girl’s parents over custody.
“The suspect left the car with his daughter. The intervention forces detained him without resistance. It looks like the child is not injured,” said the police, who negotiated with the man for many hours. The suspect eventually got out of his vehicle, handed his daughter over to officers and allowed himself to be arrested.
On Saturday, a 35-year-old man drove his car through the airport gate and stopped on the airport area. He parked the vehicle near a Turkish Airlines plane and threw several Molotov cocktails from the vehicle, according to police. Firefighters sprayed the plane with water for safety reasons. Today, police said the father was sitting in the car with the little girl.
According to the DPA agency, his actions were most likely related to a custody dispute, the man wanted to fly with his daughter to Turkey, where he comes from. The child’s mother had previously contacted the police about her daughter’s possible abduction. Today she arrived at the airport and followed the development of the situation. She was assisted by a crisis intervention team.
Operations at the airport came to a complete halt after 8pm on Saturday, with flight cancellations and diversions affecting more than 3,000 passengers. The police also had both terminals cleared. This morning, the airport had to cancel another 126 flights and redirect another five. Throughout today, the airport in Hamburg was supposed to handle almost 290 flights with 34,500 passengers, writes the DPA agency.
About three hours after the end of the drama with the father and his little girl, the airport spokesman told DPA that the area had reopened. It was not immediately clear how many connections the incident ultimately affected.
Despite the current hostage incident, the management of Hamburg Airport does not see any shortcomings in the security of the area. According to him, it corresponds to the regulations, and is even stricter. Nevertheless, with the size of the airport, which corresponds to 800 football fields, according to its management, it cannot be ruled out that “someone can use brute force to get into the secure area”. (ČTK)
Tags: Hamburg Airport resumed operations arrest man held daughter hostage
