An exhibition football match between the Netherlands and host Germany was canceled on short notice Tuesday because of a highly credible bomb threat at the Hanover stadium.
Hanover Police Chief Volker Kluwe said authorities had "concrete evidence that someone wanted to set off an explosive device in the stadium." He gave no details.
The game was called off less than two hours before it was supposed to have begun in the 49,000-seat HDI Arena.
Fans who had started entering the stadium were told to leave. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and several German and Dutch ministers were to have attended.
The game was to have been a friendly match between the German and Dutch teams in a show of solidarity with France.
On Friday night, the German team was in the middle of a match with the French team in Paris when three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Stade De France, killing one bystander — just one of the acts of terrorism that night that killed at least 129 people and wounded more than 350 in the French capital.
