'Serious plans for explosions' cancel Netherlands-Germany soccer match

"Serious plans for explosions" forced the evacuation of a stadium in Hannover, Germany, on Tuesday night before a Netherlands-Germany friendly soccer match, the police chief for Germany's Lower Saxony region told Germany's public broadcaster NDR.

Chief Volker Kluwe told NDR that authorities "had concrete intelligence that someone wanted to set off an explosive device inside the stadium." The two tips forced officials to cancel the Netherlands-Germany match about 90 minutes before kickoff.

"We do take this intelligence seriously. That is why we proceeded with this protocol. We did not take this decision lightly, but it was in accordance with the seriousness of the intelligence," Kluwe said.

German media outlets Der Spiegel and Bild Zeitung reported the tips came from France's intelligence agency. The French alerted German federal police to an "Iraqi sleeper cell" with plans to stage an attack. CNN has not independently confirmed the report.