Germany’s match against the Netherlands has been called off after information a bomb attack was planned, according to police in Hanover.
The city’s police chief Volker Kluwe told German television that authorities have “concrete evidence that someone wanted to set off an explosive device in the stadium.”
“The key warning reached us about 15 minutes before the gates opened,” he told public broadcaster NDR.
He urged people to keep away from stadiums and not move in large groups.
Meanwhile, the city’s main train station was partially closed following reports that a suspicious object was found in a train.
Hanover police later said the object was not found to have contained explosives. It has been destroyed in a controlled explosion.
A second stadium in Hanover, where the popular German band Söhne Mannheims was due to play, was also evacuated amid heightened security fears.
The football stadium was evacuated about an hour and a half before kick off.
Thousands of spectators who had already arrived at the HDI-Arena were told to calmly leave the area via loudspeaker, journalist Barbara Mohr, who was covering the match for Germany’s international broadcaster DW, told Sky News.
Shortly before the game was cancelled, police officers cordoned off an area outside the stadium after finding a suspicious object.
However, interior minister for the German state of Lower Saxony Boris Pistorius said no explosives have been found, contradicting media reports that explosives had been discovered in an emergency vehicle outside the stadium.
Speaking at a press conference with German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere, Mr Pistorius said no arrests have yet been made.
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.
He said the game had been cancelled for “good reasons, difficult reasons”, but would not elaborate for fear it would “unsettle the public.”
Just hours earlier Mr de Maiziere had warned that the terrorist threat in Germany was “very high”.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and several other government ministers were due to attend the match to send a signal that Germany would not bow to terrorism in the wake of the Paris attacks.
They were not in the stadium when the game was called off and have now returned to Berlin.
Photo Credit: Screen grab from Sky News
