VIENNA: The main suspect in a planned attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Austria had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group and had chemical substances at his home, authorities said.
The 19-year-old, with North Macedonian roots, worked with another 17-year-old Austrian male and is among three people detained after the plot was announced late on Wednesday (Aug 7), to the shock of “Swiftie” fans globally.
Austria’s general director for public security Frankz Ruf told ORF radio on Thursday that chemical substances and technical devices, showing “concrete preparatory actions”, were found at the 19-year-old’s house in the town of Ternitz.
He had sworn allegiance to Islamic State’s leader, he added, citing internet evidence.
Swift’s three concerts in Vienna, expected to draw 195,000 people, were cancelled.
“It’s just heartbreaking, just frustrating. But at the end of the day I guess it’s for everyone’s safety,” said Mark del Rosario, who had flown from the Philippines for the show.
The Kurier newspaper, citing sources familiar with the situation, reported that the suspect had stolen the chemicals from his former workplace, a metal processing company also in Ternitz, and had made progress in building a bomb.
The newspaper reported that he had planned to drive a car into the crowd expected to gather outside the stadium, and had also considered using machetes and knives.
Austria’s interior ministry and intelligence service were not immediately available for comment on the report’s details, and Reuters was unable to verify it.
The case has illustrated risks to stadium shows, music festivals and other large gatherings, with the planned attack echoing a foiled plot by three Islamic State-linked suspects against Vienna’s gay pride parade last year.
Authorities have revamped their national security intelligence in the wake of a 2020 attack by a convicted jihadist in the centre of Vienna that left four dead, the first such militant attack in the Austrian capital in a generation.
Source: CNA
