Agency :
“Serious plans for explosions” forced the evacuation of a stadium in Hannover, Germany, on Tuesday night before a Netherlands-Germany soccer match, the police chief for Germany’s Lower Saxony region told Germany’s public broadcaster NDR.
Chief Volker Kluwe told NDR that authorities “had concrete intelligence that someone wanted to set off an explosive device inside the stadium.” The two tips forced officials to cancel the Netherlands-Germany match about 90 minutes before kickoff.
“We do take this intelligence seriously. That is why we proceeded with this protocol. We did not take this decision lightly, but it was in accordance with the seriousness of the intelligence,” Kluwe said of the match cancellation. However, no explosives were found at the stadium, regional Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said at a news conference Tuesday night.
Later that same evening, two Air France flights headed from the United States to Paris were also diverted because of bomb threats, officials said. Both flights landed safely.
German media outlets Der Spiegel and Bild Zeitung reported the tips about the soccer match came from France’s intelligence agency. The French alerted German federal police to an “Iraqi sleeper cell” with plans to stage an attack. CNN has not independently confirmed the report.
The German national team tweeted that the game had been canceled, and “#DieMannschaft are under police protection and have been escorted to a safe place.”
Authorities asked spectators to go home and not stay outside the stadium in big crowds, Kluwe said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and at least three other top government officials had been expected to attend the match, Merkel’s office said.
“Serious plans for explosions” forced the evacuation of a stadium in Hannover, Germany, on Tuesday night before a Netherlands-Germany soccer match, the police chief for Germany’s Lower Saxony region told Germany’s public broadcaster NDR.
Chief Volker Kluwe told NDR that authorities “had concrete intelligence that someone wanted to set off an explosive device inside the stadium.” The two tips forced officials to cancel the Netherlands-Germany match about 90 minutes before kickoff.
“We do take this intelligence seriously. That is why we proceeded with this protocol. We did not take this decision lightly, but it was in accordance with the seriousness of the intelligence,” Kluwe said of the match cancellation. However, no explosives were found at the stadium, regional Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said at a news conference Tuesday night.
Later that same evening, two Air France flights headed from the United States to Paris were also diverted because of bomb threats, officials said. Both flights landed safely.
German media outlets Der Spiegel and Bild Zeitung reported the tips about the soccer match came from France’s intelligence agency. The French alerted German federal police to an “Iraqi sleeper cell” with plans to stage an attack. CNN has not independently confirmed the report.
The German national team tweeted that the game had been canceled, and “#DieMannschaft are under police protection and have been escorted to a safe place.”
Authorities asked spectators to go home and not stay outside the stadium in big crowds, Kluwe said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and at least three other top government officials had been expected to attend the match, Merkel’s office said.
