German Stadium Evacuated, Soccer Game Canceled

HANOVER, German Nov 17 A friendly soccer game between hosts Germany and Netherlands in Hanover was called off less than two hours before its start on Tuesday, German police said.

According to information obtained by German media from German security sources, the cancellation was relevant indication to an attack that had been planned by potential Islamist attackers.

The German news agency dpa quoted police chief Volker Kluwe saying the information concerned an explosives attack.

Both the German and the Dutch teams were then rushed to a secure undisclosed location before the hosts left individually for their homes and the visitors for the airport.

The interior minister for Lower Saxony, Boris Pistorius, told the same press conference that no arrests had been made and he could not confirm a report in a local newspaper that explosives had been found in an ambulance outside the stadium.

Part of Hannover train station has since been closed while a suspicious object is investigated, German media have reported.

“No, I would not recommend that at all”, said Maassen, though he defended the decision on Tuesday evening to cancel Germany’s football match against the Netherlands in Hanover, which Chancellor Angela Merkel had been due to attend.

The 14,000-seater TUI Arena was the venue for a concert by the band The Söhne Mannheims. Most fans were still waiting outside when the order to evacuate came.

Barely 20 minutes after fans packed the 49,000-capacity stadium, authorities ordered an evacuation.

Speaking on TF1 TV, he said France would have 36 fighter jets in the region capable of carrying out airstrikes on Isis targets once the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle reached the zone.

The 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.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said “Germany is on high alert after the Paris attacks”, and “we are taking every precaution to make sure citizens are safe”.

Meanwhile, in England, the France-England friendly at London’s Wembley Stadium got underway without any hiccups.

“The decision when you call off such a match is a very hard one”.

“There was a lot of fear and anxiety in the dressing room that night”, said head coach Joachim Loew.

Despite this, after a thorough search, no explosives were found at the HDI Arena.