German stadium evacuated in terror attack scare

A stadium in Hannover where an international football match between Germany and Holland was to be played was evacuated at short notice yesterday, and the match cancelled. Julian Stratenschulte / EPA

paris // A stadium was evacuated on Tuesday night and an international football match cancelled amid fears of a repeat of the ISIL terror attacks on Paris.

The match between Germany and the Netherlands at the HDI Arena in Hannover, due to have been attended by the German chancellor Angela Merkel, was called off and fans were told to leave after a suspicious suitcase was found.

The Stade de France in Paris was one of the targets of last Friday’s wave of suicide bombings and shootings that killed 129 and critically injured nearly 100.

Earlier on Tuesday France demanded support from other European countries in bombing ISIL targets in Syria in response to the attacks.

The move puts pressure on all 28 European Union members by invoking a “mutual assistance” treaty clause to ease the burden on France.

“France cannot do everything, in the Sahel, in the Central African Republic, in the Levant and then secure its national territory,” said Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French defence minister.

The French president Francois Hollande has described the attacks as an “act of war” and proposes to extend his country’s state of emergency for three months. France is also expected to seek EU agreement on a temporary suspension of the Schengen agreement on free passage between member nations.

The British prime minister David Cameron said the Paris attacks strengthened a “compelling”’ case for Britain to join France in bombing ISIL in Syria.

Mr Cameron told parliament he would seek political and public support for extending air strikes from ISIL targets in Iraq to Syria.

Investigators in France and Germany carried out more raids and arrests on Tuesday in the hunt for those involved in the Paris attacks. France believes they were masterminded in Syria and launched from Belgium with the help of French accomplices.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, a Belgian of Moroccan descent who was already wanted by counter-terrorism police, co-ordinated the attacks from his Syrian base.

A French man, Fabien Clain, thought to be in the ISIL-held Syrian city of Raqqa, was identified on Tuesday as the French speaker on terrorist propaganda distributed on social media after the attacks.

A “safe house” and a hotel room suspected of being used by the Paris attackers were located in different parts of the French capital. Two men detained in Belgium were charged with terrorism offences and German police made three arrests in Aachen, close to the borders with Belgium and the Netherlands.

Another night of intense police activity in France led to 128 raids and more than 20 people being taken in for questioning.

France’s interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said France had now mobilised a total of 115,000 security personnel with the aim of preventing a repetition of the events in Paris. However, political leaders are warning the public of the possibility of further, imminent attacks.

French counter-terrorism agencies are once again under intense scrutiny after yet another atrocity in which people known to the authorities were involved.

Security experts point out that practical manning levels could never sustain round-the-clock surveillance of all suspects, But the apparent inability to monitor those capable of carrying out attacks has led to increased calls for internment without trial.

Questions are also being asked about how Salah Abdelslam, named as the “eighth man” who escaped the scene of the city-centre attacks in which his brother Brahim was killed, could be stopped as he drove from Paris to Brussels next morning but allowed to proceed.

Now the subject of a massive manhunt, Abdeslam is known to have entered Austria in September. The Austrian interior minister, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, said Abdeslam entered Austria from Germany with two companions, who have not yet been identified. His own identity was established during a routine traffic check and he appears to have satisfied officers by saying he was going to Vienna on holiday.

Another of Abdelslam’s brothers, Mohamed, was among those arrested in Brussels on Saturday but has been released without charge.

He said his family was shocked at the involvement of his brothers in the massacre and shared feelings of sympathy for the victims. “My family and I were moved by what has happened,” he said, “We learnt of it from television and never thought at any moment that a brother was involved.” He appealed to his brother to give himself up.

Salah Abdelslam, the only known survivor among those directly involved in the Paris attacks, appears to have prepared the final stages of his actions in a cheap hotel room in the southern Parisian district of Alfortville. Police found hypodermic needles and tubes – which may have been used in bomb-making – as well as discarded pizza boxes and half-eaten chocolate snacks.

A Renault Clio rented by Salah Abdeslam was also found in Paris’s northern 18th arrondissement. To the north of the city centre, not far from the Stade de France, police raided a property in Bobigny believed to have been rented via an online agency by Belgian-based attackers posing as members of a security firm.