A friendly soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands in Hannover was cancelled at short notice last night after a bomb threat.
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French intelligence officials are reported to have warned their German counterparts about a potential attack, sparking a string of security alerts this evening.
Police also evacuated Hanover’s TUI multi-purpose arena where a concert was about to start while officers checked cars and pedestrians in the city centre and sniffer dogs were deployed.
German police have so far found no explosives or made any arrests, despite media reports to the contrary. Ironically, the match was being used by officials as a gesture of defiance against terrorism, a few days after the Paris Attacks.
Tuesday’s fixture at the HDI-Arena in Hannover was called off shortly before kick-off after police confirmed there was a “serious plans to bring about an explosion” at the venue.
Head coach Joachim Loew had called Tuesday’s planned match “a clear message and symbol of freedom and a demonstration of compassion, as well as sorrow, for our French friends – not only in France, but throughout the world”.
The police chief of Germany’s Lower Saxony region Volker Kluwe told NDR that authorities “had concrete intelligence that someone wanted to set off an explosive device inside the stadium”.
A suspected terrorist plot is thought to have been foiled in Germany tonight after a series of bomb scares rocked Hannover.
Several clubs including Hamburg have said security will be heightened for the games and all are thought likely to review security measures. “They just suspended the game and are going to inform us why”.
“We want to go to the stadium, visit Christmas markets and attend public celebrations, and that is what we will still do”, he said. The game was only cancelled an hour and a half before kick-off.
Police forces secure a scene after finding a suspicious piece of luggage prior the match Germany against the Netherlands.
Over 40,000 supporters were expected, but Pistorius said no risks could be taken in view of the events in Paris, and faced with a specific threat of an explosive attack. He said she returned to Berlin immediately. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Interior Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, had also scheduled to attend the match.
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The German Football Association (DFB) announced on Sunday that the match would go ahead, despite the national team spending Friday night inside the Stade de France in the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks.
