TerrorismGerman terrorist cell planned to attack German-Holland soccer game last Tuesday

Published 23 November 2015

Last Tuesday’s friendly soccer game in Hanover between the national teams of Germany and the Netherland was canceled at the last minute after credible information that terrorists were planning to detonate three bombs inside the stadium during the game. BfV, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, says there are 1,100 Islamists in Germany, of which 420 are classified as high-risk because of their potential to threaten public safety. These Islamists have exhibited a readiness to use violence.

Last Tuesday’s friendly soccer game in Hanover between the national teams of Germany and the Netherland was canceled at the last minute after credible information that terrorists were planning to detonate three bombs inside the stadium during the game.

High German official told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that the German security services were tipped off by French counterparts that an ISIS-affiliated terror cell in Germany planned to detonate five bombs in Hanover – three inside the stadium, one at a bus stop, and one at a railway station.

The Independent reports that the match, which was to be attended by Chancellor Angela Merkel and other high-level political leaders from both countries, was called off ninety minutes before kick-off and the stadium was quickly evacuated.

The French intelligence provided the German security services with the names of the would-be attackers, but the German official said the names were not familiar to German counterterrorism agencies.

The German authorities are now looking for the suspects, and federal and state police units are expected to increase the number of raids on suspicious sites in the coming days.

“Many of the terrorists who committed the attack in France were natives, and many were Syrian returnees. Both of those are true of many radical Islamists in Germany,” the official told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “For that reason, there is a great danger that we could experience a similar attack here.”

State broadcaster ZDF, though, reported that the German intelligence services are divided over the accuracy of the information provided by the French counterparts, and that there are doubts whether a German cell existed.

ZDF quoted German intelligence officials to say that they receive warnings about the existence of five- to seven-man terrorist cells “almost weekly.” In most cases, the reports turn out to be unsubstantiated, the officials told ZDF, but “since Paris we are looking at those warnings differently.”

BfV, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, says there are 1,100 Islamists in Germany, of which 420 are classified as high-risk because of their potential to threaten public safety. These Islamists have exhibited a readiness to use violence.