Hamburg - A German airport blamed wave after wave of vacationing Danes on Thursday for jamming its 10,000-space parking buildings, prompting ugly scenes as more travellers arrived.

Hamburg Airport in the north of Germany has suddenly become a magnet for people from southern Denmark, thanks to enticingly cheap airfares to holiday destinations in the summer sun and low-cost parking for cars while vacationers are away.

But as the car-parks declared themselves "full up," the travellers kept arriving, forming tailbacks outside car parks. Many voiced fury and panicked, with just minutes to go before their flights departed.

By Thursday, many cars with Danish registration plates were parked illegally on nearby grass verges.

"We weren't expecting them," admitted an airport spokeswoman, adding that the problem was about to get worse.

Late next week, the summer school holidays begin in northern Germany and thousands of German families are set to drive to the airport and seek vacation parking.

The airport is trying to lease nearby yards and fields to use as emergency parking space.

The local Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper said German police would hand out tickets for illegal parking but would not tow offending cars away. "If we remove one, another car will pop straight into the space," said a spokesman.

The airport website has a minute-by-minute guide to how many parking spaces are available.

Internet: http://www.ham.airport.de/en/parkbelegung.phtml (dpa)