VIENNA (AP) — Austrian authorities announced yesterday that a tragedy had been averted after the arrest of two suspects in connection with an attack on Taylor Swift’s concerts scheduled in Austria in the coming days.
“The situation is serious, but we can also say that a tragedy was avoided,” Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told a news conference.
The two suspects wanted to carry out an attack outside the stadium where the concerts were to be held and kill as many people as possible with knives or homemade bombs, according to security officials.
Police said they are not looking for any other suspects.
Authorities said they found material related to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State extremist group in the home of one detainee, a 17-year-old Austrian of Turkish and Croatian descent who was arrested by special forces near the stadium.
The other suspect is a 19-year-old Austrian of North Macedonian descent who confessed to his plans, authorities said.
Their names were not made public, in line with local privacy rules.
When the 19-year-old suspect began planning the attack in July, he quit his job and “suspiciously changed his appearance to match the propaganda” of the Islamic State group, officials said at a press conference in the Austrian capital yesterday.
The suspect wanted to use knives or homemade bombs to kill as many people as possible in front of the Ernst Happe stadium, said Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of the Austrian Directorate of State Intelligence and Security.
“He has clearly become radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State and believes it is OK to kill infidels,” Haijawi-Pirchner said.
Just a few weeks ago, the 19-year-old suspect posted an oath of allegiance to the current leader of IS on the Internet. In a raid on his home in Ternitz, south of Vienna, authorities found chemical substances and technical devices that indicated “concrete acts of preparation,” said Franz Ruf, director general of public security at the Ministry of the Interior.
The 17-year-old suspect was hired days earlier by a company that provides services at the concert venue, and detained by special forces police near the stadium.
No other suspects are being sought, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said.
However, a 15-year-old boy who had been in contact with the two suspects was being questioned by police.
Consternation
The cancellation of the concerts announced the day before yesterday dismayed Taylor Swift fans around the world, many of whom spent thousands of euros on travel and accommodation in the expensive Austrian capital and sold out tickets for the concerts of the “You were yesterday, today and tomorrow” tour at the “Erns Happel Stadium”.
The venue was empty yesterday morning except for the journalists filming outside.
Organizers said they were sticking to their decision to cancel all three events, with up to 65,000 fans expected inside the stadium for each show and up to 30,000 more outside.
Security officials and the concert promoter, Barracuda Music, were in close contact about whether to cancel the three shows, but it was ultimately the organizing company that made the decision.
In an Instagram post the night before last, promoter Barracuda Music said that “we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled concerts for the safety of everyone,” after officials confirmed a plan to attack the stadium.
Europe is in thrall to the American superstar, with the German town of Gelsenkirchen temporarily renaming itself “Swiftkirchen” ahead of concerts there in mid-July.
“For many, a dream has been shattered today. Over three nights in Vienna, tens of thousands of #Swifties would have celebrated life together,” Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler, who used the nickname for Taylor’s supporters, wrote on social media platform X.
“I am so sorry that you were denied this. Swifties stand together, hate and terror cannot destroy that,” Kogler wrote on Wednesday afternoon.
The cancellation came a week after three girls were killed and 10 others injured in a knife attack in Southport, a town on England’s northwest coast, during a dance and yoga class centered on Taylor Swift.
A 17-year-old boy has been charged with murder, but no motive has yet been given.
In 2017, 22 people were killed in an attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England.
Suicide bomber Salman Abedi planted a backpack bomb at Manchester Arena at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving.
More than 100 people were injured.
Abedi was killed in the explosion.
An official inquiry concluded last year that Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, failed to act quickly enough on key information and missed a crucial opportunity to prevent the attack, the deadliest extremist attack in Britain in recent years.
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2024-08-19 16:11:29
