German police arrest Turkish gunman, 35, who ‘kidnapped his four-year-old daughter and held her hostage’ in terrifying incident at Hamburg airport amid ‘custody row with his wife’

Police have arrested a father, believed to be Turkish, who rammed his car through a security gate and threw Molotov cocktails on a runway at Hamburg Airport while holding his four-year-old daughter hostage in his car.

The situation had been ongoing for almost 18 hours, with German officials shutting the busy airport as negotiations with the 35-year-old, who has been named as Salman E by German newspaper Bild, continued throughout the night. 

Hamburg Police added the released child appeared not be injured and the arrest was made without resistance. Hamburg Airport will remain closed while investigations continue, with ‘flight operations suspended indefinitely until further notice’.

Authorities believed the terrifying ordeal was sparked over a ‘custody dispute’ when the desperate wife of the gunman reported a possible child abduction, with the young girl said to be taken by force from her mother. 

Last night, the armed man, said to be a Turkish national, ploughed his Audi, which had the licence plates removed, through an airport barrier at around 8pm local time (7pm GMT).

He fired a weapon twice and then threw two burning bottles out of the vehicle, police said. The driver then barricaded himself to the foot of a Turkish Airlines plane. 

Bild reported that Salman had gone to the home of his ex-wife after using a false advertisement online, using a fake email address and fake name to reportedly meet his former partner and child.

He is then said to have kidnapped their daughter, speeding away towards the airport in his black Audi, the paper said. 

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Hamburg Police said this afternoon: ‘The hostage situation is over. 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.’

The airport added: ‘The situation at the airport remains unchanged, the police operation continues. Flight operations will remain suspended indefinitely until further notice.

‘The police action has ended. Preparations are underway to resume flight operations as quickly as possible. We are in close coordination with the security forces as to when the access roads and terminals will be reopened.’ 

Yesterday evening the airport was quickly shut down with 3,200 passengers reportedly being evacuated from planes parked on the runway. 

This morning police psychologists attended the airport trying to negotiate a solution with the driver. Officers had been communicating to the man through a translator speaking in Turkish. 

Access roads to the airport were closed off and members of the public were warned to stay away from any terminals as the negotiations continued. 

The force said reiterated that traffic measures around the huge airport remain in place and that entering the airport remains impossible.  

In an earlier update this morning, officers said they assumed the man ‘is in possession of a live firearm and possibly also explosive devices of an unknown type’. 

‘Our top priority is protecting the child,’ the force said early today. ‘According to our current findings, the child is doing well physically.’

The mother of the abducted girl arrived at the airport today and was receiving psychological support, German news agency dpa reported.

‘The mother naturally wants to get to her child as quickly as possible,’ Malte Stueben, the head of the German Red Cross crisis intervention team in Hamburg, told dpa.

A paediatrician also arrived at the airport to look after the girl once the hostage-taking is over, the news agency reported.

Hundreds of people whose flights could not depart on Saturday night because of the situation were put up at hotels nearby.

Arriving planes were either re-routed to other German airports or cancelled.

Police spokeswoman Sandra Levgrun told the regional channel of public television NDR that it is believed a father and his child are in the car.

She called it a ‘very good sign’ that he had remained in contact with the authorities over a prolonged period of time.  

The incident has caused major and ongoing disruption throughout one of Europe’s busiest airports.

On Saturday evening alone 17 flights scheduled to land in Hamburg were diverted. Another 286 flight are scheduled for today, carrying some 34,500 passengers.

At present 61 flights – 34 departures and 27 arrivals – have been cancelled, with more expected throughout the day. 

Last night a large number of officers from state and federal police were on site and in the vicinity of the vehicle, federal police spokesman Thomas Gerbert told German news agency dpa. 

Police said no one appeared to be injured, but the airport announced it was closed for takeoffs and landings. 

Bild reported that the gunman drove in front of Terminal 1 in an Audi without a number plate. 

The driver initially sped away but a few minutes later broke through a security barrier at the north gate and drove towards the planes.

He is said to have started fires in the airport area by throwing burning bottles out of the car which were described as ‘a kind of Molotov cocktails’ by police spokesman Mr Gerbert.

Footage shared on social media shows flames on the tarmac as fire crews rushed to the scene.

Special forces, fire crews and officers all descended on the scene as a major police operation remaining underway this morning.

Police said that all terminals were evacuated – as was an aircraft which the armed man parked next to.

The passenger plane was full but its understood everyone has been evacuated and a collection point was set up at the nearby Radisson Blue hotel opposite the airport.

Police also said that a psychologist was talking with the man and that there was no indication other people could be harmed since all passengers had evacuated the airport.