Germany Soccer Stadium Evacuated Due To Bomb Threat

Police officers and rescuers stand at the entrance of the stadium as supporters leave the HDI Arena after the friendly football match Germany vs the Netherlands was called off for security reasons in Hannover on November 17, 2015. The football match was m

Hannover’s police chief says authorities have cancelled a friendly soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands because they had “concrete information” about a bomb threat.

The German news agency dpa quoted police chief Volker Kluwe saying the information concerned an explosives attack. The stadium was evacuated by police about an hour and a half before the kickoff Tuesday night in the northern German city.

Top government officials including Chancellor Angela Merkel had been scheduled to attend the match to send a signal that Germany wouldn’t bow to terrorism in the wake of the Paris attacks.

Guest

  • Joseph Nasr, writer for Reuters, currently in Berlin.
Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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