The German national football team have been evacuated from their hotel in Paris due to a bomb threat, after an anonymous caller phoned in to reveal the threat at 9:50 am yesterday.
Germany are in Paris for a friendly against France last night, but their preparations were reportedly disturbed when they were forced to leave the Molitor Hotel.
“There was a threat and the hotel has been evacuated and cordoned off,” Germany’s business manager, Oliver Bierhoff told Germany’s Express newspaper.
Police with sniffer dogs went on site to check for potential explosives and a security perimeter has been established around the hotel.
The head of the German football federation (DFB) security team Hendrik Grosse Lefert added that there was no indication of when the squad would be allowed to return to the complex.
“The French police have informed us that an anonymous bomb threat had been made,” he said.
“Together with our colleagues, we decided to evacuate the hotel to enable them to go through and examine the rooms and conference rooms thoroughly.”
The German players headed to Roland Garros to play tennis in the aftermath of the scare, with Sami Khedira and Lukas Podolski posting Instagram photographs from the French Open courts.
The world champions are expected to have lunch away from the hotel and return in the early afternoon to pick up their kit and belongings before heading to the Stade de France, where they face France in a repeat of the 2014 World Cup quarter-final.
Germany won that encounter in Rio de Janeiro 1-0 thanks to a goal from Mats Hummels.