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Vienna, Austria.
One of the suspects accused in a foiled terror plot at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, Austria, confessed to planning to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue,” The Associated Press reported.
Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, told AP the suspect “wanted to carry out an attack in the area outside the stadium, killing as many people as possible using the knives or even using the explosive devices he had made.”
More details are emerging on the suspects and the botched plot, which led to the cancellation of three Swift concerts in the Austrian city, AP reported. Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, told AP the attack was planned for August 9 or 10. Swift’s website lists the concerts as canceled.
According to the Kronen Zeitung, a German-language newspaper in Vienna, authorities conducted a “large operation in the Lower Austrian town of Ternitz,” and towns nearby were evacuated. According to the newspaper, a 19-year-old male was arrested on suspicions of terrorism. A second suspect was also arrested, the site reported.
“The man is said to have planned an attack on one of Taylor Swift’s concerts in Vienna,” Kronen Zeitung reported, describing the suspect as “Austrian with North Macedonian roots” who “lived with his family in Ternitz.”
However, CNN reported that three teenagers “aged 19, 17 and 15 – were questioned in connection with the alleged terror plot.”
ABC News reported that the 17-year-old suspect is an Austrian citizen, and the youngest suspect is a citizen of Turkey who “was also detained and questioned.” ABC reported that authorities accuse the older suspects of being directly involved in preparations and say the youngest “had been asked by the main suspect about ignition mechanisms.”
According to the Kronen Zeitung, the suspects had sworn allegiance to ISIS, after likely becoming “radicalized on the Internet.”
The Associated Press reported that the suspects “appeared to be inspired by the Islamic State group and al-Qaida,” and authorities “found bomb-making materials at one of their homes.”
The Concerts’ Cancellations Were ‘Heartbreaking for All Fans,’ a Tourism Official Told Austrian Media
GettyTaylor Swift performs onstage at her “Eras Tour” at AT&T Stadium on March 31, 2023.
A July article in Wiener Zeitung newspaper reported that the three Taylor Swift concerts at Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna were sold out.
“It is of course heartbreaking for all fans,” Norbert Kettner of Vienna Tourism said to The Kleine Zeitung, which reported that, ‘Some companies are currently offering ‘goodies’ for the disappointed Swift fans . . . From free admission to the Albertina to a free bite at ‘Le Burger.’”
According to ABC News, the 17-year-old suspect “was employed a few days ago at a facility company providing services at the concert venue and would have been working there.”
The Older Suspect Is Accused of Saying That He Was Planning ‘Something Big,’ Reports Say
GettySecurity guards remove barriers in front of the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, Austria, on August 8, 2024, after the three concerts of US mega-star Taylor Swift were canceled following the arrest of an Islamic State sympathizer in connection with an attack plot. The Vienna leg of a tour by American mega-star Taylor Swift has been canceled.
The main suspect was “clearly radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State and thinks it is right to kill infidels,” said Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, according to AP. The suspects’ names were not released.
Franz Ruf, the public security director at Austria’s Ministry of Interior, said in a news conference in the German language, that the oldest suspect quit his job on July 25, revealing he was planning “something big,” according to CNN.
CNN reported that the 19-year-old suspect “planned to detonate a device in the perimeter of the concert venue,” according to Ruf, who added that the 17-year-old suspect “recently broken up with his girlfriend.”
At the home of the oldest suspect, authorities found “explosive devices and detonators” as well as “extensive ISIS propaganda material, 21,000 euros in counterfeit money, machetes, knives, and anabolic steroids,” CNN reported, attributing the information to Ruf.
Jessica McBride is a news, sports, and entertainment reporter covering breaking news, politics sports, entertainment, and crime for Heavy. She is a former reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Waukesha Freeman newspapers in Wisconsin and is a senior journalism instructor at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. More about Jessica McBride
