Vienna - Austrian security officials say a 19-year-old was planning to kill “a large crowd of people” in a suicide attack at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna. Officials say the teen - who had previously pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group (IS) - confessed that he “intended to carry out an attack using explosives and knives”. He is one of two suspects arrested on Wednesday.
A third, aged 18 and an acquaintance of the main suspect, was arrested on Thursday. Swift’s three sold-out shows at the Ernst Happel Stadium have been cancelled. More than 195,000 people had been expected to attend.
Local media have also reported that the 19-year-old had stolen chemicals from his former workplace. The Kurier newspaper, citing sources, reported that he used to work at a metal processing company in his home town of Ternitz, and that he had made progress in building a bomb. The outlet also reported that he had planned to drive a car into the crowd expected to gather outside the stadium.
Security officials at a news conference on Thursday did not comment on where he got the chemicals, but public security chief Franz Ruf told reporters that chemical substances and technical devices found at the main suspect’s house showed “concrete preparatory actions”. The head of Austria’s Directorate for Protection of the State and Intelligence (DSN) Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, said weapons were seized from the main suspect’s house, and that “his aim was to kill himself and a large crowd of people either today or tomorrow at the concert”. Mr Ruf added the teen had posted a video online confessing to the plot, quit his job at the end of last month and told people that he had “big plans”.
They also revealed that the main suspect - an Austrian citizen who was born there but who had North Macedonian parents - had recently changed his appearance and “adapted it to Islamic State propaganda”, and had been consuming and sharing Islamist propaganda online. A second suspect - a 17-year-old Austrian of Turkish or Croatian heritage - was employed at a company which would have “provided services” at the stadium where Swift was to perform. The 19- and 17-year-olds have been remanded in custody.
A 15-year-old, who was “in the area” of the stadium at the time, is being questioned. Despite officials saying that they were not looking for any more suspects, a third - an 18-year-old Iraqi citizen - was arrested in Vienna on Thursday evening, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said. The man is also believed to have sworn an oath of allegiance to IS.
Speaking at the briefing on Thursday, Mr Karner said “a tragedy was averted”, and the attack was foiled with the help of international intelligence as Austrian law does not allow censorship of messenger applications..
