Police have arrested a man suspected of holding his daughter hostage at Hamburg airport, concluding an 18-hour stand-off.
The 35-year-old gave no resistance when he was detained and the child, believed to be aged four, appeared not to be injured, German police said.
The lengthy stand-off forced Hamburg airport, one of the country’s busiest terminals, to shut down.
The hostage situation sparked a major security response. Pic: AP
Flights in and out of the site were suspended and passengers urged not to travel after the drama unfolded on Saturday evening when a car crashed through a barrier on to the site, sparking a major security response.
The vehicle with the man and his daughter was parked for hours under a Turkish Airlines plane – with a large number of officers at the scene – as negotiators, including a psychologist, sought to end the fraught deadlock, thought to have been triggered by a custody dispute.
The man had been suspected of carrying a gun and possibly explosives.
In a post on X on Sunday afternoon, the city’s police force said: “The hostage situation is over.
“The suspect got out of the car with his daughter.
“The man was arrested by the emergency services without resistance.
“The child appears to be unharmed.”
The authorities said the man’s wife had previously contacted them about a child abduction.
The airport said it was working to resume operations as quickly as possible.
A total of 286 flights with around 34,500 passengers had been scheduled for Sunday, it said earlier.
Hamburg mayor Peter Tschentscher wrote on X: “I wish the mother, the child and her family a lot of strength to cope with this terrible experience.”
The episode raised concerns over security at the airport less than four months after climate activists got on to the runway
and blocked planes.
