Fire Department vehicles arrive at a security scene at the Hamburg Airport that is closed to passengers after a vehicle broke through security and entered the premises. Photo / AP
Fire Department vehicles arrive at a security scene at the Hamburg Airport that is closed to passengers after a vehicle broke through security and entered the premises. Photo / AP
The airport in the northern German city of Hamburg is closed to passengers and flights are cancelled after a vehicle broke through security and entered the premises, the German news agency dpa reports.
Federal police said an armed man had broken through a gate with his vehicle andfired twice into the air with a weapon. Police also said the man’s wife had previously contacted them about a possible child abduction.
Police said later that the 35-year-old man had a 4-year-old child inside the car and that they assumed he was the father and had taken the child by force from the mother in a possible custody battle.
German newspaper Bild daily reported the children’s mother had alerted police to a possible kidnapping shortly before the incident.
Police vehicles and ambulances arrive at the scene of a security breach at the Hamburg Airport. Photo / AP
Hamburg Police tweeted to say there was a “major police operation” at the airport “with a large contingent of emergency services”.
They added: “We are currently assuming a static hostage situation.”
Police said they “are currently assuming a custody dispute is the background to the operation”.
Federal police spokesman Thomas Gerbert told dpa that a large number of officers from state and federal police were on-site and in the vicinity of the vehicle.
Police guard the scene of a security breach at the Hamburg Airport. Photo / AP
Police also said that a psychologist was talking with the man and that there was no indication other people could be harmed since all passengers had evacuated the airport.
