A horrific incident took place at the airport of Germany’s Hamburg after an armed individual broke through a gate with his car, entered the tarmac and fired two shots into the air. Police called it a “hostage situation” which forced the closure of the airport and the cancellation of all scheduled flights in the northern German port city.
The gunman drove past the entrance and onto the airport’s apron which is where planes are parked, unloaded and refuelled, on 4th November at about 8 pm (19:00 GMT). Furthermore, he flung two burning bottles out of the vehicle.
Notably, the car contained a minimum of two people, one of whom was a child. According to reports, the perpetrator’s wife has accused him of reportedly kidnapping a child. Authorities stated that they believed “a custody dispute is the background to this operation” in a statement. She had placed an emergency call alerting cops to the abduction of her baby.
“The police operation on the Hamburg flight plan continues. Flight operations will remain suspended until further notice. The police ask all passengers and those collecting them not to come to the airport. The access roads are largely blocked off,” Hamburg Airport informed in a post on social media.
Hamburg police said that the operation was underway. “Our negotiating group has contact with the person in the car. The situation remains static.”
Update 06:40 Uhr
— Polizei Hamburg (@PolizeiHamburg) November 5, 2023
Der Einsatz dauert an.
Unsere Verhandlungsgruppe hat Kontakt zur Person im PKW.
Die Lage ist weiterhin statisch.@hamburgairport#Hamburg #HamburgAirport
The airport declared on its website that there would be no more arrivals or departures and that cancellations would last till 5 November. According to the local media, the airport has been cleared out in its entirety and a sizable portion has been blocked off. The police requested that the passengers postpone their trip to the airport.
A police spokeswoman, Thilo Marxsen told reporters that authorities on the ground were looking for a Turkish interpreter to speak with the 35-year-old man a few hours into the standoff. Police said that the scenario persisted in the wee hours of 5 November morning. They revealed that there were psychologists and officers specialised in negotiations present on the scene and in contact with the culprit.
German media was briefed by a police spokesperson who disclosed, “We have good contact with the perpetrator. We are relying on a negotiated solution here.” The cops declared, “That’s an absolutely good sign,” expressing their positive assessment of the length of the discussions.
According to the authorities, the occupants of the plane that was closest to the car and other aircraft were evacuated and transferred to a nearby hotel. Social media footage shows heavily armed police guiding a group of passengers to a bus by crossing the tarmac.
Wir werden nun von der @PolizeiHamburg evakuiert. @HamburgAirport @_austrian #Hamburg pic.twitter.com/z94GiRdKx7
— Alina (@Alinaliniali) November 4, 2023
Alina Tuider, 32, the lady who uploaded the video, claimed that her aircraft to Vienna was ready to take off when it came to a stop shortly after 8 p.m. “We saw armed police running across the field next to our plane,” she unveiled in an interview. She added that her flight had been stopped for approximately an hour at that point. “So we knew there was something going on.” She briefly believed she heard a gunshot before discovering later on her phone that the driver was armed.
The incident caused delays for 3,200 people in all, per reports from the local press. The authorities were still investigating if the two tiny fires that were observed on the tarmac early on were started by the individual. He raced past a fence to reach the tarmac, per the police, but wouldn’t disclose if there were any security officers present.
