No explosives found after football match cancelled in Hanover

Belgium’s game against Spain in Brussels, also scheduled for Tuesday night, was cancelled due to security fears but France’s match against England will go ahead, with tributes to the victims of the Paris attacks set to take place before kick-off.

Mr de Maiziere refused to reveal the source of the intelligence on the planned attack following German media reports that authorities were tipped off by French intelligence officials.

Hanover city police chief Volker Kluwe said there had been “serious plans to cause an explosion” in the 49,000-capacity stadium, and that authorities had acted on “a concrete threat scenario”.

Germany’s top security official says providing details about the threats could unsettle Germans and make future such decisions harder.

Part of Hannover train station has since been closed while a suspicious object is investigated, German media have reported. Germany played France on Friday during the attacks that included suicide bombers outside the stadium.

Germany’s Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maiziere told a news conference: “The match was called off on my recommendation”. Merkel and ministers plane Berlin the way back, the stadium about an hour before the alarm whistle announced the start not evacuated in panic.

“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.

In the meantime, the security situation in the Hanover area had stabilised and there was no sign that Christmas markets might be targets for an attack, something that is worrying many Germans, said Pistorius.

Potentially lethal bombings at two sites in Hanover, Germany were defused on Tuesday night, just days after Muslim terrorists carried out lethal coordinated attacks in Paris.

German police also detained an Algerian man in the town of Arnsberg in central-west Germany after he told Syrian asylum seekers that “fear and terror” would be spread in the French capital and allegedly spoke about a bomb.

Games between Real Madrid and Barcelona have been considered high-risk events in the past mostly because of threats of fan violence, not terrorism. “Our players and our team need to process the events of this evening”.

The stadium was hosting a match between Germany and the Netherlands. Multiple attacks in Paris that night left 129 dead.

The arena was evacuated after a suspected suspect package was found. It is then thought a truck or van disguised as an ambulance was found packed with explosives. All have now been released.