The Germany-Netherlands international friendly soccer match was cancelled on Tuesday after a bomb threat at the HDI Arena stadium in Hannover. The match was evacuated following the threat, which the BBC reports was an "intention to ignite explosives" at the stadium, according to the city's president of police Volker Kluwe.
The match was called 90 minutes before it was supposed to kick off and Kluwe said to the media that there were multiple bomb threats, with the first one being a "false alarm." German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other members of the German government were expected to attend the match, but they were not at the stadium when the threat occurred.
Fans and ticket holders were just starting to enter the stadium when the evacuation call was given and people were told to leave in a "calm manner," according to the BBC. The stadium opening for the match was delayed after a suspicious package was found and soon after that the match was called off after what Kluwe called "concrete evidence" of a possible attack on the stadium.
The Paris attacks from last week has put all international soccer matches on high security alert after bombers attempted to get into the Stade de France for the Germany-France friendly. Three suicide bombers set off bombs at the stadium after trying to get into the match and at least 129 people were killed in Paris in a set of coordinated attacks by terrorists.
According to the BBC, England and France played on Tuesday night in England at Wembley Stadium as scheduled and the victims of the Paris attacks were honored there. A friendly between Spain and Belgium was called off on Tuesday for security reasons.
