An afternoon session at the European Darts Grand Prix was abandoned on Friday as fans were ushered out of the venue. Jermaine Wattimena and Daniel Klose were limbering up for their first-round clash when a fire alarm rang out inside the Glaspalast in Sindelfingen, Germany.

Those in attendance were forced to head for the exits, and organisers determined that the best course of action was to draw a line under the afternoon session and resume at 7pm (local time). The PDC released the following statement: “Elten Safety Shoes European Darts Grand Prix Update: A fire alarm led to the Glaspalast being evacuated before the Jermaine Wattimena v Daniel Klose game began.

“Due to the venue’s safety procedures, the afternoon session was subsequently ended. Friday’s evening session will now commence at 1900 local time with the Wattimena v Klose match, before the other scheduled evening session matches take place.”

Wattimena and Klose will be in good company when they return to the oche later this evening. Joe Cullen, Mike De Decker and Raymond van Barneveld are among the big hitters to have made the trip to Germany for the sixth European Tour event of the season.

The likes of Stephen Bunting, Gary Anderson, Chris Dobey and Peter Wright will kick off their own campaigns when the second-round clashes get going on Saturday. As expected, however, Luke Littler is skipping the event.

The teenage superstar, who won his fifth Premier League Darts event of the season in Birmingham on Thursday, pledged to skip all German events until October after being given a hostile reception on his last visit to the country.

That called his World Cup of Darts place into question, with Frankfurt hosting the tournament in mid-June. But Littler has confirmed that he will team up with Luke Humphries and target the win for England.

“No, no I was always [going to play],” he told SportsBoom. “Luke will want to go back-to-back and obviously I want to win it for the first time. Even though it’s not a major, it’s still playing for your country.”

Sky Sports commentator Stuart Pyke has suggested that Littler could also feature in other events on German soil, contrary to his recent comments. “The reason he pulled out of the [European Darts Grand Prix] this week is scheduling,” he explained. “Nothing more, nothing less. He got a bit emotional.”