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Hanover 'terror plot involved several bombs'

The Local Germany
The Local Germany - [email protected]
Hanover 'terror plot involved several bombs'
Police at the HDI Arena in Hanover. Photo: DPA

According to a secret document seen by Bild newspaper, security services cancelled a football match between Germany and the Netherlands on Tuesday over a suspected multi-bomb attack on the stadium.

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The document which Bild obtained details a multi-faceted attack in which several terrorists would have attacked the stadium simultaneously, explosive devices would have been set off in the stadium itself and a bomb would have gone off in the city of Hanover.

As was reported at the time, security services believed the terrorists would smuggle explosives into the stadium inside an ambulance.

The group's ringleader meanwhile was to film the attack from a seat inside the stadium. After midnight, a further attack was to take place at the train station.

Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann has said that intelligence services received a tip-off about the suspected attack from a foreign intelligence service, believed to be France's. The game was only cancelled an hour and a half before kick-off.

But, despite the detailed tip-off reported by Bild, no explosives were found in or around the stadium and no arrests were made in connection with the suspected attack. One suspect package was found at Hanover train station which police described as a "fake bomb".

Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said at a press conference on Tuesday evening that he did not want to make details of the tip-off public so as not to unsettle the public – a statement later mocked by Germans on social media.

On Wednesday opposition leader Sahra Wagenknecht berated de Maizière for deliberately spreading fear among the German population, accusing him of acting "unconstitutionally“.

 

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