Happy end to the hostage-taking at Hamburg Airport
The hostage-taking of a four-year-old girl on the tarmac at Hamburg Airport has come to a happy end after more than 18 hours of suspense. The police arrested the armed hostage-taker, who had been holding his daughter since Saturday, on Sunday afternoon without resistance. "The suspect had left the car together with his daughter," the police wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "The child appears to be unharmed."
This marked the end of a hostage situation that began on Saturday in Stade, Lower Saxony. The 35-year-old had driven from there to Hamburg Airport. At around 8 p.m. at the airport, he broke through a barrier at the gate to the airport apron in his car, in which his daughter was also sitting. He shot into the air on the grounds and threw incendiary devices from the car. His car was then parked next to a Turkish Airlines plane for more than 18 hours. The police tried for hours to end the hostage-taking without bloodshed - finally succeeding early Sunday afternoon.
Thanks from the mayor and interior senator
"Many thanks to the Hamburg police for their efforts and their level-headed approach, which enabled the four-year-old girl to be freed and the perpetrator arrested," said Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD). "I wish the mother, the child and her family a lot of strength to cope with these terrible experiences."
During the nerve-wracking police operation, flight operations in the north were suspended and the airport was still closed on Sunday afternoon. For the Hamburg police, it was "one of the longest and most challenging operations in recent history", according to Andy Grote (SPD), Senator of the Interior. He thanked all his police colleagues for their strong performance.
Custody dispute the starting point
According to the police, this was probably preceded by a custody dispute with the mother. According to a spokesperson, the wife of the hostage-taker, who is said to have been staying in Stade near Hamburg, had contacted the state police about possible child abduction. "We currently assume that a custody dispute is the background to the operation," tweeted the Hamburg police.
During the hours-long negotiations with the 35-year-old, the girl held hostage in the car was apparently physically unharmed, according to the police. The child could be heard in the background of the phone calls with the man, police spokeswoman Sandra Levgrün told the German Press Agency.
Mother of the child is waiting at the airport
Negotiations had been going on all night. It was spoken in Turkish, said Levgrün, who emphasized during the operation: "We are relying on a negotiated solution here." According to Malte Stüben, head of the crisis intervention team at the Hamburg German Red Cross, the mother "naturally wanted to get to her child as quickly as possible". The woman was in direct contact with the DRK at the airport. According to Stüben, a pediatrician was also there to look after the four-year-old girl after she was taken hostage.
Thousands of people are affected
The airport was still closed over a wide area on Sunday. The number of flights canceled due to the hostage-taking at Hamburg Airport rose steadily. According to information from the airport on Sunday morning, 126 flights had already been canceled between the actual start of operations at 6:00 am and 11:00 am. Five arrivals had been diverted to other airports. For the entire day, 286 flights - 139 departures and 147 arrivals - with around 34,500 passengers were actually planned. On Saturday, 27 flights with around 3200 passengers were already affected.
Passengers describe their fears
"Frightening", "scary" - this is how passengers who were taken from their planes described their impressions. A young woman who was flying to Mallorca told dpa that she had seen a fire and initially thought it would be put out quickly. Then she heard that there was a rampage, which was really scary. In fact, the armed man had thrown incendiary bottles on his way out of the airport, which started a fire on the apron.
Numerous passengers spent the night in an airport hotel. "We ended up accommodating 250 people here," said Frank Kohlstädt, head of the DRK station at the airport. Around 200 people were also given hotel rooms. The people were more excited than psychologically stressed.
Previous security incidents
Hamburg Airport had already been closed in October, but at that time due to an attack threat on a flight from Tehran to Hamburg. In July, climate activists from the Last Generation group brought Hamburg Airport to a standstill for hours. At the time, there were calls for security to be tightened. However, despite the hostage-taking, Hamburg Airport does not believe that the security of the site has been neglected. "The security of the site complies with all legal requirements and largely exceeds them," an airport spokeswoman told dpa.
Criticism of security shortcomings at airports
Nevertheless, there was also criticism of the security standards at German airports. The German Police Union (DPolG), for example, is no longer satisfied with the current approach. "It is difficult to understand why, for example, Christmas markets are secured with concrete barricades, and our airports are treated neglectfully by operators as high-security areas," says DPolG Federal Vice President Heiko Teggatz.
Aviation expert Heinrich Großbongardt told "Der Spiegel": "Hamburg Airport is not safe - and neither are other airports in Germany." Airports have been known for decades as preferred targets for terrorists. There are planes on the aprons with tens of thousands of liters of kerosene in their bellies and hundreds of passengers on board." Großbongardt therefore described the airport operators and authorities as "incredibly naive".
The closure of air traffic due to the hostage situation at Hamburg Airport also affected air traffic in the north, leading to numerous flight cancellations and diversions. Despite the armed hostage-taker's history of crime, air traffic security at German airports has been criticized for being inadequate.
Source: www.dpa.com
