BERLIN (Web Desk) – German police have cancelled a Germany-Netherlands football match due Tuesday evening that was meant to honour the Paris attack victims, citing a “serious” bomb threat.
There had been “a concrete threat scenario for all of Hanover,” police chief Volker Kluwe told public broadcaster NDR, adding there had been “serious plans to cause an explosion”.
No explosives have been found so far and no arrests made after Tuesday evening’s Germany-Netherlands football match was cancelled, a German regional minister said.
Lower Saxony interior minister Boris Pistorius also told a press conference that rumours of an explosives-packed ambulance could not be confirmed.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the match in Hanover — which Chancellor Angela Merkel had been due to attend — was cancelled “to protect the population”, but did not provide specifics.
He said “we had good reasons, bitter reasons” but added that describing them could “cause concern to the population”, after local police in Hanover earlier said there had been a bomb threat
