Vienna (AP) — On Friday, as disgruntled fans delighted Vienna with friendship bracelet exchanges and street singing of the pop sensation’s songs, Austrian authorities revealed the apprehension of a third person in relation to the thwarted plot to attack three now-canceled Taylor Swift concerts.
The primary suspect, a 19-year-old, intended to use homemade explosives or knives to target concertgoers gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium during the performance on Thursday or Friday. The crowd can number up to 30,000 per night, with an additional 65,000 inside the venue. Officials stated that the suspect wanted to “kill as many people as possible.”
Along with a 17-year-old, he was brought into jail on Tuesday, according to officials. They are both citizens of Austria.
At a separate news conference on Friday, the interior minister revealed that the third suspect, an 18-year-old Iraqi national, had been taken into custody on Thursday night.
A 15-year-old was also questioned but not taken into custody. Complying with Austrian privacy regulations, their names were kept a secret.
Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour is scheduled to conclude with five shows at London’s Wembley stadium between August 15 and August 20.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan declared, “We’re going to carry on,” even though he understood Vienna’s cancellation.
Nevertheless, there were similarities between the Vienna plot and the 2017 suicide bomber assault that claimed 22 lives at an Ariana Grande performance in Manchester, England. Thousands of young admirers were exiting Grande’s concert when the bomb went off, making it the deadliest extremist assault to occur in the UK in recent memory.
Later this month, Coldplay will perform four nights at the same stadium in Vienna.
Officials indicated that al-Qaida and the Islamic State organization served as inspiration for the plan. Both the primary suspect and the 18-year-old who was detained on Friday made a vow of “allegiance” to the Islamic State organization.
In addition to material associated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, investigators found bomb-making supplies at the residence of the primary suspect, a 17-year-old. The suspect, who has declined to comment thus far, worked a few days earlier at the music site for an unidentified company that provided services.
The 18-year-old is not directly connected to the scheme, despite having taken an oath and coming from the prime suspect’s social circle, according to Interior Minister Gerhard Karner.
In a statement sent to The Associated Press on Friday, the Austrian Interior Ministry stated that “his arrest underscores the broad scope of the ongoing investigation.” Anyone who shows signs of radicalism or may be involved in terrorist operations is the target of swift response from the authorities.
According to the statement, investigators are examining the suspects’ “networks” and have started analyzing both electronic and physical evidence.
Speaking with reporters on Friday, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby discussed the United States’ involvement in giving Austria intelligence pertaining to the Swift concerts.
“The United States has an enduring focus on our counterterrorism mission. We work closely with partners all over the world to monitor and disrupt threats. And so as part of that work, the United States did share information with Austrian partners to enable the disruption of a threat to Taylor Swift’s concerts there in Vienna,” he said.
Attackers “prioritize casualties and therefore choose soft targets where they know large numbers of people will be congregating,” according to Shiraz Maher, an expert on Islamic extremism with the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, who made this assertion in an AP statement.
The three-night Eras Tour run, which was set to start on Thursday, has been canceled, according to concert promoter Barracuda Music, since the arrests happened too close to showtime.
Swifties in their hearts comforted one another on Vienna’s streets and on social media. Hundreds of people assembled on Corneliusgasse, a little street five kilometers (three miles) from the stadium, after traveling from all over the world. The street’s name is a play on the melancholic synth-pop song “Cornelia Street,” which can be heard on Swift’s 2019 album “Lover.”
They exchanged friendship bracelets that were dangling from the branches of the lone tree on the street, sung along to Swift’s greatest hits, and took selfies. At her concerts, Swift fans frequently exchange the beaded bracelets—which usually feature the lyrics to Swift’s songs or catchphrases—with random people.
For the show, 22-year-old Huiyeon Kim flew from South Korea to Vienna in 14 hours. She spent Friday on Corneliusgasse with around 300 other fans. The cancellation, in her words, was “so disappointing.”
“We couldn’t understand or believe it,” she told AP. “I think it was very very sad.”
Younger fans and their parents visited the Vienna Zoo for tourism in the meanwhile, and while there, they saw references to Swift’s songs in the gift store and in pictures shared on social media.
The phrase “Karma is a cat” from the 2022 album “Midnights” was tucked among plush cats, with the words “Karma” penned in paper banners fashioned like friendship bracelets.
The celebrity has not publicly discussed the conspiracy or postponed events, even while the crowd sang along to her classics. The news from Barracuda Music was uploaded on “Taylor Nation,” a verified Instagram feed that is presumably managed by her staff. Her own account has not been updated.
This week, the AP reached out to Swift many times for comment, but a representative never replied.
The artist said she was “completely in shock” over the brutality when a suspect in England killed three girls and injured ten others with a knife assault during a dance and yoga class with a Taylor Swift theme last month.
