The German police were still attempting to negotiate with a father more than six hours after he reportedly rammed his car through a security gate at Hamburg airport with his four-year-old daughter inside before hurling Molotov cocktails at the runway.

The armed man ploughed his Audi through an airport barrier at around 8 pm local time (7 pm GMT) last night and discharged a weapon twice, police said. After firing the shots, the man threw two burning bottles out of the vehicle, they added.

Police mentioned that the desperate wife of the gunman had earlier reported a possible child abduction.

They later stated 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.

The airport was swiftly closed, and passengers evacuated from planes that were parked on the runway, with police desperately trying to negotiate with the man. However, those negotiations have persisted into the early hours of this morning.