Germany’s Hamburg airport halts flights after threat to plane from Iran

Germany’s Hamburg airport suspended flights on Monday as police, acting on a threat of an attack sent via an email, searched a plane from Iran’s Tehran that had landed in the northern city, a federal police spokesperson told news agencies.

The airport said on its website that no take-offs or landings were taking place due to police measures. The German Press Agency first reported on the police response to the threat.

The news came 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.

Passengers and crew members are undergoing security checks and the aircraft is being searched.

“The federal police this morning received by e-mail a threat of attack against an Iranian aeroplane,” a police spokesman said. The plane from Tehran with 198 passengers and 16 crew members has since landed safely at Hamburg airport, he added.

The threat came as West Asia descended into chaos after the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel.

Iran has rejected unfounded allegations that it had a role in the massive assault on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. “The accusations linked to an Iranian role… are based on political reasons,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told reporters.

The Islamic republic, he said, does not intervene “in the decision-making of other countries, including Palestine”.

Palestinian militants from the Iran-backed Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip, penetrated Israel at dawn on Saturday under the cover of a massive rocket barrage.

More than 1,100 people have been killed in the conflict so far, with Israel reporting over 700 dead and the Palestinians putting their toll at 430.