A standoff that shut down the Hamburg airport ended on Sunday afternoon, almost 18 hours after German authorities responded to an armed man who drove his automobile onto the tarmac and parked close to a airplane.
The state of affairs was resolved when the person acquired out of his automotive together with his 4-year-old daughter, whom he had taken from her mom on Saturday night, the Hamburg police stated. The man was arrested with out resistance and the woman appeared unhurt, the police stated on social media.
The airport stated that preparations have been underway to restart flight operations, which had all been suspended.
The police stated earlier Sunday that it appeared that the person, 35, had come from the German state of Lower Saxony and that his intention was to take his daughter to Turkey, the place he was from. The police negotiated with the person in Turkish all through the night time, they stated.
The episode started round 8:30 p.m. Saturday, the police stated, when the person drove via a gate to get to the tarmac. They declined to say whether or not he had pushed previous any safety guards.
The man fired a minimum of one shot into the air, Sandra Levgrün, a spokeswoman for the Hamburg Police Department, stated in an interview posted on social media. She stated that no accidents had been reported. Two small fires have been noticed on the tarmac early on, although the authorities have been nonetheless making an attempt to find out if the person had set them.
Passengers aboard the airplane close to the automobile and different planes have been evacuated and brought to a close-by lodge, the police stated.
Video posted on social media confirmed closely armed officers escorting a bunch of passengers throughout the tarmac to a bus.
The lady who posted the video, Alina Tuider, 32, stated her 8:05 flight dwelling to Vienna was getting ready for takeoff when the airplane got here to a halt.
“We saw armed police running across the field next to our plane,” Ms. Tuider stated in a telephone interview, including that the airplane had been grounded for about an hour by that point. “So we knew there was something going on.”
At one level, she thought she heard a gunshot earlier than later studying concerning the armed driver from the news on her telephone.
Around midnight native time, police evacuated her airplane and he or she was later taken to a lodge.
Jin Yu Young and Emma Bubola contributed reporting.
Source: www.nytimes.com