“We had concrete evidence that someone wanted to set off an explosive device in the stadium”, Hannover police chief Volker Kluwe told German TV.
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Thomas de Maziere declined to tell the conference any further details about the nature of the threat or the source of where the information had come from.
But the players, coaches as well as the national football association then chose to go ahead with the Hanover game in a gesture of solidarity with France.
On Friday night, a suicide bomber had attempted to enter a soccer stadium in Paris where French President Francois Hollande was attending an exhibition match between France and Germany.
Unconfirmed reports from a local German newspaper had said a truck possibly disguised as an emergency vehicle or ambulance initially believed to contain explosives was found at an unknown location.
Included in Friday night’s targets was an global fixture between France and Germany at Stade de France in northern Paris.
The Netherlands football squad arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport after leaving Hanover where the friendly worldwide against Germany was cancelled due to a terror threat.
Security officials have denied reports that explosives were found outside the stadium where Germany had been due to play against the Netherlands.
Germany press officer Jens Grittner said the team bus was redirected to a “safe place”, and that was all he could say for the moment.
A soccer stadium in Hannover, Germany, was evacuated Tuesday after authorities received several serious threats, the German Interior Minister said.
In the hours after the stadium was evacuated large numbers of German police took to Hanover’s streets.
“The security of the visitors, the teams and the staff is priority number one and the situation was as such, that I think the only possibility was to cancel the game”.
Security had been tight around the stadium heading up to the match, news agency ANP said.
“The first vice-president of the DFB has a lot of tasks but he is not the official speaker of the police department”, Koch said. He said indications of a planned attack became stronger as the match approached, and the decision was made shortly after Merkel and her ministers landed.
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Germany’s global friendly against Holland was called off at late notice on Tuesday evening after a warning that it would be targeted by terrorists.
