The custody dispute between a German steakhouse heiress and her former husband took an unexpected turn over the weekend when their youngest children were abducted while celebrating New Year’s with their father in Denmark, local authorities said.

Christina Block’s two children — 13-year-old Klara and Theodor, 10 — were watching fireworks with their father, Block’s ex-husband Stephan Hensel, at a cafe in Gravenstein around 12:15 a.m. Monday when a group of men attacked, Bild newspaper reported.

The men knocked Hensel down and forced the children into a car before speeding away in two separate vehicles, the outlet said, citing Danish police.

The cars used to abduct the children were registered in Germany, the newspaper added.

Gravestein is about 10 miles from the German border, and federal police stationed patrol cars at the border by 1:07 a.m.

“We were called in because of a possible kidnapping,” a spokesperson for the federal German police told Bild.

The Hamburg police are investigating the incident, the outlet explained.

Block, 49, is the daughter of German entrepreneur Eugen Block, whose Hamburg-based empire includes the popular Block House steakhouse chain.

Block has been fighting Hensel, 49, over custody of Klara and Theodor since summer 2021, when Hansel supposedly kept the two kids with him in Denmark following a visit, Bild reported.

The couple’s oldest daughter, 17-year-old Johanna, lives with Hansel voluntarily, while the middle daughter, Greta, 15, stays in Hamburg with Block. 

The kidnapping may be tied to the custody dispute, Danish police told Bild.

Neither Block not Hansel has commented publicly on the abduction.