Hamburg airport hostage standoff over, suspect arrested - police

[November 06, 2023]  FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Police arrested a man and rescued a child at the centre of a hostage standoff at Hamburg airport on Sunday, ending a crisis that had forced authorities to close the busy air hub. 

Police secure the area after a man drove through a barrier onto the grounds of the city's airport with a child in his car in Hamburg, Germany, November 5, 2023. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer

A man, who police said was suspected of carrying a gun, and possibly explosives, drove a vehicle through the gates of the airport on Saturday night, officers said.

Police said the 35-year-old man was with his four-year-old daughter and was thought to be involved in a custody dispute.

"The hostage situation is over," the city's police force wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, early on Sunday afternoon.

"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," it added.

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.

"I wish the mother, the child and her family a lot of strength to cope with this terrible experience," Hamburg mayor Peter Tschentscher wrote on X.

The episode raised concerns over security at the airport less than four months after climate activists got onto the runway and blocked planes.

(Reporting by Tom Sims, Joern Poltz, and Tanya Wood;Editing by Daniel Wallis, William Mallard, David Evans and Andrew Heavens)

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