Two people were arrested in Austria on Wednesday, foiling a potential terror attack that may have been targeted at a Taylor Swift concert.
Swift, one of the world’s biggest pop stars, was set to hold shows at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as part of her Eras Tour. Security for the shows was heightened after a 19-year-old was arrested in Ternitz, about an hour south of Vienna, and a second person was arrested in the Austrian capital. However, Event organizer Barracuda Music later called off the concerts, saying that “we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety.”
Franz Ruf, the public security director at Austria’s interior ministry, said that authorities were made aware of “preparatory actions” for a potential attack “and also that there is a focus by the 19-year-old perpetrator on the Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna,” according to the Austria Press Agency (APA). Chemical substances were also secured and are being evaluated, Ruf said.
According to Ruf, the 19-year-old pledged an oath of allegiance to ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), and the Associated Press (AP) reported that the suspect is believed to have become radicalized on the internet. Austria’s Cobra unit, which has been compared to the FBI‘s Hostage Rescue Team, reportedly assisted with the arrests of the two suspects.
Newsweek reached out to Swift’s publicist via email on Wednesday for comment.
Vienna police chief Gerhard Pürstl said that any real danger has been minimized, but security was raised due to an abstract risk, the AP reported.
There will be a special focus on entry checks at Swift’s upcoming concerts, among other security measures, according to Ruf.
After Vienna, Swift will make her way to London for four shows in August and then finish this international leg of her tour in Canada. She will have six shows in Toronto in November and three shows in Vancouver in December.
ISIS was founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was originally part of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terrorist network. The militant group became known as ISIS in 2013, and it also goes by ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). ISIS gained prominence in 2014 after securing control of Iraqi cities, including Mosul. Designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations, the militant group follows a fundamentalist doctrine of Sunni Islam.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for hundreds of terrorist attacks, including the Manchester attack in May 2017 when a single suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, killed 22 people during an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena in England.
Update 08/07/24 4:20 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from Barracuda Music about Swift’s Vienna shows being canceled.
