Hamburg Airport: Hostage situation ends with man arrested and child unharmed

German police have said a hostage situation that shut down Hamburg airport is over, with a man arrested and his daughter safe.

The airport, in the northern part of the city, had been closed to passengers and flights since Saturday night when the man broke through a gate with his vehicle and fired a weapon twice into the air, according to German news agency dpa. Authorities also said the man’s wife had previously contacted them about a child abduction.

Police said the 35-year-old man had his four-year-old daughter inside the car after reportedly taking her from her mother by force in a possible custody battle.

A psychologist negotiated with the man for hours and police said nobody else could be harmed because the airport was evacuated of all passengers.

“We must currently assume that he is in possession of a live firearm and possibly also explosive devices of an unknown type,” police earlier wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Our top priority is to protect the child. According to our current knowledge, the child is physically well,” they added.

The mother of the abducted girl arrived at the airport on Sunday and was receiving psychological support, German news agency dpa reported.

“The mother naturally wants to get to her child as quickly as possible,” Malte Stueben, the head of the German Red Cross crisis intervention team in Hamburg, told dpa.

A paediatrician also arrived at the airport to look after the girl once the hostage-taking is over, the news agency reported. Hundreds of people whose flights could not depart on Saturday night because of the situation were put up at hotels nearby. Arriving planes were either re-routed to other German airports or cancelled.