Man with knife “threatens to blow up building” in Hamburg: what do we know?

A man has been apprehended in Hamburg after reportedly barricading himself inside an apartment block and threatening to blow the building up.

According to the media outlet Bild, police deployed “in large numbers” to the scene of the incident, which took place today in the German city’s Eimsbittel area. The newspaper adds that emergency medical personnel and the fire brigade were also on site. The street on which the building is located, Schäferstrasse, was reportedly cordoned off.

Per Bild, the man was finally overpowered by police and taken away in a patrol car. Photographs published by the outlet showed a barefoot man, wearing what appeared to be a grey dressing gown, being led from the building by law enforcement. Relatives of the man told authorities he was in extreme psychological distress, Bild said. No injuries have been reported.

Hamburg is one of the host cities for the UEFA European Championships in Germany. The city’s Volksparkstadion, the home stadium of Bundesliga soccer club Hamburger SV, is the venue for today’s Group B game between Croatia and Albania.

Follows shooting of axe-wielding man

There were no immediate indications that today’s incident was related to the European Championship. It comes three days after police in Hamburg shot and seriously injured a man who was wielding an axe in the city’s central St Pauli area. According to local law enforcement, the individual was threatening officers and passersby, and appeared to be “acting in a state of psychological emergency”.

Although not thought to be related to Euro 2024, the weekend incident took place near a fanzone for supporters of the Dutch national team. The Netherlands faced Poland in a Group D match at Volkparkstadion later on the same day.