The German team are still coming to terms with what they experienced last Friday during their worldwide against France.
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The interior minister for the Lower Saxony region, Boris Pistorius, said the police operation was ongoing but that security forces had not yet confiscated any bomb inside the HDI-Arena nor made any arrests.
A concert venue in Germany has been evacuated as police ramp up security amid a terror alert sweeping the country.
Merkel was set to attend with Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and several government ministers, in a show of solidarity with France.
However, Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere, speaking in an impromptu press conference, said he would not comment on the source of the information. Soccer fans were flowing into London’s Wembley Stadium before a friendly match between England and France.
“I have a lot of respect for the decision”.
Reinhard Rauball, the German Football League president, said the cancellation of the Dutch game was a “sad day for football”.
According to a German newspaper, an ambulance full of explosives was found near the stadium following a bomb threat.
The German Football Association (DFB) had at the weekend already come close to calling off the match, while Belgium have cancelled their friendly against Spain today.
Officials said public transportation was moving efficiently in Hanover to get people back home, though a few stops had been blocked at officials’ request.
German police say more than 750 suspected Islamists have travelled to the Middle East from Germany and the authorities know of about 70 who have returned from military training camps.
The Netherlands soccer squad arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport after leaving Hanover the place the pleasant worldwide towards Germany was cancelled on account of a terror threat.
About 70,000 fans then applauded wildly as the two teams stood together in one long line ahead of a perfectly observed minute’s silence in a solemn mark of respect for the people who were killed in Paris.
“It has become clearer once more that it is a good thing to have these security forces, above all to ensure that we can continue to stage major events like football matches in Germany and that we can look forward to these events”, Merkel added.
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They were not in the stadium when the game was called off and have now returned to Berlin.
