Hamburg Airport suspends flights after ‘threat of attack on aircraft’: Police swoop on Iranian plane

Flights have been suspended at Germany’s Hamburg Airport this morning after a threat of an attack was made against a plane flying from the Iranian capital Tehran.

German cops descended on the aircraft after it landed at the international airport in the country’s north and conducted a search, acting on an earlier emailed threat.

The terminal has halted take-offs and landings while the operation takes place, a spokesman said. The nature of the threat has not yet been revealed. 

The police operation comes on the first day of a special meeting of the German and French governments in Hamburg, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron both attending. 

It also unfolded against a backdrop of growing international tensions after Israel came under a sustained and brutal attack by Hamas gunmen over the weekend.

The incursions left hundreds of Israelis dead – including revellers at a festival. Israel responded with a wave of deadly retaliatory air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

More follows.