Hostage standoff at Germany’s Hamburg airport ends peacefully, suspect arrested

BERLIN

German authorities said a hostage incident at Hamburg Airport came to a peaceful end, with the suspect surrendering peacefully to the police.

“The suspect left the car with his daughter. He did not resist and our forces arrested him,” the police said on social media, adding that no one was injured during the 18-hour incident.

On Saturday evening, the 35-year-old man broke through a gate, drove onto the flight apron, and stopped near a passenger plane which was about to take off for Türkiye, authorities said.

The armed man previously had a dispute with his ex-wife about their divorce and parental rights, local media reported. She contacted the police earlier on Saturday about a possible child abduction, according to the reports.

Hamburg police negotiated with the man to convince him to release his 4-year-old daughter and surrender to the authorities.

During the incident, the airport was closed for all takeoffs and landings.

“Preparations are underway to resume flight operations as quickly as possible,” the airport operator said in a statement on social media.