An explosion went off near the Borussia Dortmund team bus this afternoon in Dortmund, Germany, a little less than two hours before the club was scheduled to take on AS Monaco in the Champions League quarterfinals. The match has been canceled, and rescheduled for tomorrow.
A police statement, helpfully translated by the Guardian, gives more details:
“In the run-up to the Champions League match of BVB against AS Monaco, there was an explosion near the BVB team teambus shortly after 7pm. The location of the event is Wittbräuckerstraße/Schirrmannweg in Dortmund-Höchsten.
“According to current knowledge the windows of the bus (whole or partial) were shattered and one person was injured. It is not yet possible to say exactly what the explosion was or exactly where something exploded.”
The Wittbräuckerstraße/Schirrmannweg is the intersection of the hotel the team was staying at. BILD reports that the player injured was Spanish center back Marc Bartra, and that the explosion was detonated in the street in front of the team bus. According to Polish right back Łukasz Piszczek, a bomb exploded between cars and a fence, and Bartra injured his hand. According to Spanish newspaper Sport, Bartra is mostly in shock, with only slight injuries to his arm.
As of yet, police have given no indication of the cause of the explosion.
We will update this post as more information becomes available.