A soccer stadium in Hannover, Germany has been evacuated ahead of a match between Germany and the Netherlands over security fears, according to early reports. At press conference following the evacuation, German officials called it a "bitter" decision, but one they felt they had to make after anonymous tips.

The reason for the evacuation is still largely unknown, apart from confirmed "concrete information" about a threat from German police. The Associated Press reports that Hannover police chief Volker Kluwe was quoted in local media as saying that the information concerned a bomb threat.

The German sports news site DW Sports also reported that Kluwe confirmed that "There was a device intended to be detonated inside the stadium."

"You don't know what a perpetrator is possibly planning. Don't stay in groups. Find safety," police said, according to DW Sports.

The threats come just days after horrific attacks carried out by militants linked to the so-called Islamic State in the French capital of Paris left more than 120 dead, and hundreds more wounded. The soccer match in Hannover, which top German officials including Chancellor Angela Merkel were supposed to attend, was also meant to be a stand against the fear that has permeated Western countries in the wake of last week's indiscriminate attacks.

German police had not confirmed the security threat had any links to the recent attacks in Paris and Beirut. DW Sports journalists reported that police had closed a portion of the city's central train station after another object was discovered.

Check back for more details on this developing story.