Hamburg airport was closed to passengers and flights were axed after a car broke through security and entered the premises, German news agency dpa has reported.

An armed man broke through a gate with his car and fired twice into the air with a weapon, federal police said.

The man’s wife had called police about a possible child abduction, the force added.

Police said later that the 35-year-old man had a four-year-old child inside the car and that they assumed he was the father and had taken the child by force from the mother in a possible custody battle.

Federal police spokesman Thomas Gerbert told dpa that a large number of officers from state and federal police were on site and in the vicinity of the vehicle.

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.