Hamburg, Nov 6, (dpa/GNA) – Flights at Hamburg’s airport returned to normal schedule on Monday morning, hours after police managed to end a lengthy hostage stand-off with an armed man without bloodshed.
The airport said security measures will be overhauled, and physical barriers strengthened, after the armed man managed to drive his car onto the runway apron on Sunday, forcing a halt to air traffic.
“We will implement further structural measures to strengthen possible access points to the security area,” said an airport spokeswoman in Hamburg on Monday.
She said the airport’s security team, had already compared the airport’s security concept with current requirements on Sunday, in light of the incident and were in touch with “the relevant authorities.”
The 35-year-old suspect, a Turkish national, is expected to make his initial appearance before a magistrate in Hamburg on Monday. He is accused of abducting his 4-year-old daughter from her mother’s apartment in the nearby town of Stade, before fleeing toward the Hamburg airport.
He drove his car through a barrier and onto the runway apron, setting off a lengthy stand-off with German police. According to police, he fired shots from a gun, and set off two incendiary devices.
He eventually handed over the girl and surrendered to police on on Sunday evening, after 18 hours. No one was physically injured in the incident.
Police on Monday declined to say where the mother and child are currently, and how the 4-year-old girl is doing for reasons of privacy.
Child welfare authorities in Stade said on Monday, that the family was previously known to them but declined to provide further details for “reasons of social data protection, and out of consideration for the welfare of the child,” an official spokesman said.
According to the public prosecutor’s office in Stade, the man had already been convicted of taking his daughter in the past, and no longer had custody of the girl.
A magistrate on Monday will determine whether he will face criminal charges and remain in detention.
GNA