Authorities successfully disrupted a planned terrorist attack targeting Taylor Swift’s concert in Vienna, averting a potential tragedy. Swift was set to perform at Ernst-Happel-Stadion to an expected audience of 170,000, but officials cancelled the concert preemptively.
Early Wednesday, police in Ternitz, south of Vienna, arrested a 19-year-old suspect. Later in the day, authorities in the Austrian capital detained a 17-year-old accomplice, according to Franz Ruf, the director-general for public safety.
Ruf disclosed that both teenagers had radicalized online, with the 19-year-old specifically aiming to attack Swift’s concert. This individual quit his job on July 25, announcing significant plans and dramatically changing his appearance. In contrast, the 17-year-old had recently ended a relationship.
Austrian media reported that their attack strategy included driving a vehicle into crowds and assaulting people with machetes and knives on August 8. The 19-year-old confessed to planning to “kill as many people as possible” outside the concert venue and had made explosives at home using stolen metals.
Further investigations revealed that the second suspect had already positioned himself at the stadium. This radicalized Islamist had recorded a video to claim responsibility for the attack. Police found detonators and a fake police vehicle siren among the items.
A police raid at the 19-year-old’s home, where he lives with his parents and another individual, uncovered materials for making explosives, such as hydrogen peroxide. Authorities also found that he had secured a job as a security guard at the concert venue and had collected blank ammunition, counterfeit money, and a fake police light and siren.
The suspects’ identities remain confidential, though it is known that the 19-year-old, with North Macedonian roots, has confessed fully, while the second suspect holds Austrian nationality with Turkish and Croatian descent. Police also questioned a 15-year-old with Turkish heritage after discovering communication with the suspects.
