Germany cancels Netherlands match after ‘serious bomb threat’

The German national team’s players were put under police protection.

Another site in Hanover was also evacuated by police on Tuesday. “We will present that we proceed with our free lifestyle”, Schippers had stated earlier than the match, explaining her presence.

Weil said every big event had to be assessed according to the current security situation, which had changed since the Paris attacks.

“I rang [Germany team manager] Oliver Bierhoff on the team bus as soon as the decision was taken to call the game off. The bus was 5km from the stadium”, Rauball said.

“We will have greater police ranks out all night to show that we are there and that we are ensuring and can ensure people’s safety”. We’re sorry, but the match has been cancelled at short notice.

At the time, Germany was playing France in a soccer friendly in the Stade de France, outside of which three suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing one bystander.

It comes just four days after a series of co-ordinated terror attacks killed 129 in Paris when terrorists stormed locations including concert hall Bataclan where rock group Eagles of Death Metal were due to play.

CNN reported that French intelligence agents may have alerted German federal police about the bomb threat on Tuesday night pointing to an “Iraqi sleeper cell” that had planned to carry out the attack. “We all know what this match meant after Paris”, Reinhard Rauball, the interim president of the German Soccer Association, said.

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

Football fans have been told not to use trains but the leave the area on foot as quickly as possible.

“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.

During the evening, evidences were accumulating to suggest that one opted for the cancellation, said German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere at a press conference.

Belgium’s planned worldwide friendly game against Spain, scheduled for Tuesday, was also called off due to security fears.

Before the match, players were practising the French anthem “La Marseillaise”, which they had been set to sing in a sign of solidarity with the shaken nation.

The German team are still coming to terms with what they experienced last Friday during their global against France.