‘England-France friendly to go ahead’

PARIS: The England- France friendly match scheduled for Tuesday in London will go ahead despite deadly attacks in Paris that left more than 120 dead on Friday, according to the French football federation.

“After talks with the English FA who assured us there was no particular risk in holding the match, we decided to go ahead,” a federation spokesman told AFP on Saturday.

“If British authorities came to reevaluate the situation, obviously the question of holding the match or not would be addressed.”

The match is scheduled to kick off at Wembley at 2000GMT on Tuesday.

France cancelledallpublicevents including a press conference and a meeting with fans that had been scheduled for Saturday. Instead, the squad trained behind closed doors.

As France played Germany in a friendly at the Stade de France on Friday, three loud explosions were heard outside the national stadium during the first half.

At least four people died outside the glittering venue which staged the 1998 World Cup final with several others seriously hurt.

One of the explosions was near a McDonald’s restaurant on the fringes of the stadium. At least one of the two explosions in rue Jules-Rimet was a suicide bomb attack.

French President Francois Hollande, who was watching the game, was immediately evacuated. The two sides played on to the end. — AFP