IS suspect planned suicide attack at Taylor Swift Vienna concert
IS suspect planned suicide attack at Taylor Swift Vienna concert: officials. Austrian authorities detained two suspects on Wednesday for allegedly plotting to attack this week
Austria’s intelligence agency said Thursday that a 19-year-old Islamic State supporter planned a suicide bomb attack at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, killing many.
Austrian authorities arrested two suspects on Wednesday for planning an attack on the US star’s Vienna concert this week, which the organizers called off at the last minute.
The head of the Domestic Intelligence Service (DSN), Omar Hajjawi Pilchner, told a news conference that the 19-year-old main suspect had confessed and “intended to carry out an attack with explosives and a knife.”
“His goal was to kill himself and a number of people during the concert today or tomorrow,” he added. The concert should take place from Thursday to Saturday.
The second suspect is a 17-year-old Austrian national employed by a facilities management company that “provides services” at the Ernst Happel Stadium, where Taylor Swift was scheduled to perform, Hajjawi Pirchner said.
The young suspect had previously refused to speak to authorities and was in the “area” of the stadium where he was arrested, Hajjawi Pirchner said.
Interior Minister Gerhard Kerner said “a tragedy was averted.” “The situation was very serious,” he added, especially in light of the recent attack at a Taylor Swift event in Britain that left three girls dead. Authorities said a search of the prime suspect’s apartment uncovered explosives and detonators.
Disappointed Swifties
Austrian security chief Franz Ruff told reporters that both suspects had recently made changes in their personal lives.
The prime suspect is an Austrian with roots in North Macedonia who “changed his appearance to fit Islamic State propaganda,” while the other is an Austrian from Turkey or Croatia who broke up with his girlfriend, he said.
Ruff previously acknowledged that authorities had received information that led to the arrests “from foreign partners,” but did not provide further details.
Police had promised to step up security for the concerts while minimizing the actual danger, but organizers canceled Taylor Swift’s performances anyway. Around 65,000 people were expected to attend each show. Taylor Swift did not immediately comment on the decision to cancel the Vienna concert, but said she was “totally shocked” by the British attacks, in which three girls were killed and five others seriously injured in a gang attack at a Southport dance class inspired by the American singer.
Roof said police had “taken all humane measures possible to ensure” the Vienna concert “could go ahead,” but the decision to cancel was taken by the organizers.
The 34-year-old star was due to bring her record-breaking “Hellas” tour, which kicked off its European run in Paris in May, to Vienna on Thursday.
After France, the tour stopped in Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Poland. More than 170,000 viewers were expected in Austria, and the APA news agency estimated that it would bring in about 100 million euros in revenue.
By the end of the year, Eras will already be the first tour to sell more than $1 billion in tickets, and is on track to sell more than double that amount by the time it finishes in Vancouver in December.
Austria experienced its first deadly jihadist attack in November 2020, after a convicted ISIS sympathizer went on a rampage in Vienna, killing four people and wounding 23 before being shot dead by police.
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