(Berlin) Traffic at Hamburg airport in northern Germany was disrupted on Saturday evening due to a large police operation linked to the alleged kidnapping of a child in a dispute over his custody, said a police source.
Around 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. Eastern Time), a gunman drove his car through an airport gate and onto the tarmac, shooting twice into the air and throwing two burning bottles out. from the passenger compartment, said a police spokesperson.
At least two people, including a child, were in the vehicle, according to police.
Earlier, the car driver’s wife had alerted police about her child’s abduction, he added.
In the evening, the police said they believed that “a dispute concerning the custody of a child was at the origin of this operation”.
“We are on site with a large contingent of emergency services. We currently favor a static situation of [prise] hostage,” Hamburg police said on their X account.
“We are in the process of evacuating all aircraft at Hamburg Airport that still have passengers on them. The terminals have already been evacuated,” police added early Saturday.
Psychologists as well as agents specializing in negotiations are on site, police said, adding that they were in contact with the individual in the vehicle.
At the same time, the airport published a message on its website announcing that no landing or takeoff was possible due to police intervention, again without giving details.