Borussia Dortmund's UEFA Champions League quarterfinal first leg against AS Monaco will take place on Wednesday evening after the fixture was swiftly rearranged following attacks on the Dortmund team bus.
The Bundesliga club's bus was leaving its hotel en route to the game on Tuesday evening at Signal Iduna Park when it was hit by an " explosive strike," according to Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke.
Watzke said the bus was hit by "three explosive devices placed and triggered on the edge of the road," in quotes reported by the BBC. The incident, described by Dortmund police chief Gregor Lange as a " targeted attack " on Borussia Dortmund (according to quotes reported by German media), sent Dortmund's Spanish defender Marc Bartra to hospital.
"At 19:15 CET, there were three explosions in the vicinity of the hotel in which the BVB [Dortmund] team had been guests and were leaving to travel to the stadium," Lange said in a press conference, according to the official Borussia Dortmund website.
UEFA, European football's governing body, released a statement on Tuesday night postponing the game until Wednesday at 6.45 p.m. CET following a meeting at Signal Iduna Park between UEFA, Borussia Dortmund and AS Monaco representatives and local authorities.
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