Taylor Swift concerts cancelled over ‘IS terror plot’ in Austria

Taylor Swift's three concerts in Vienna this week were cancelled after government confirmation of a planned attack at the stadium, the organiser said late Wednesday.

"With confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone's safety," Barracuda Music said in a post on Instagram, adding all tickets would be automatically refunded.

A 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, to the shock of "Swiftie" fans globally.

"During our investigations, we identified preparatory actions and noted that the 19-year-old suspect had a particular focus on the Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna," Ruf said.

The main suspect in a planned attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Austria had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group.

He was planning a suicide attack at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna designed to kill many people, the intelligence agency said on Thursday.

"He said he intended to carry out an attack using explosives and knives," domestic intelligence agency (DSN) head Omar Haijawi-Pirchner told a news conference. "His aim was to kill himself and a large number of people during the concert, either today or tomorrow".

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. Authorities also discovered al-Qaeda material.

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 to comment on the report's details, and Reuters could not 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.

According to US broadcaster ABC, citing law enforcement and intelligence sources, Austrian authorities had received information about the Swift concert threat from US intelligence.

It cited the sources as saying at least one of the suspects had pledged allegiance to ISIS-K, a resurgent wing of Islamic State, on Telegram in June, but the alleged plot was Islamic State-inspired rather than directed by the group's operatives.

Ruf said there was a constant exchange of information with foreign partners, which, together with Austrian authorities' intelligence, had solidified into a specific threat situation.

Three Taylor Swift concerts are scheduled in Vienna from Thursday to Saturday, with police expecting around 65,000 attendees each day.

The shows were to be part of the record-breaking Eras Tour by the American singer-songwriter, which started on 17 March 2023 in Glendale, Arizona, US, and is set to conclude on 8 8 December in Vancouver, Canada.

Swift, 34, has not yet commented on the cancellations on her official Instagram account, which has 283 million followers.

Her fans were horrified at the threat, with some begging organisers to postpone the concert instead of cancelling it outright.

(Reuters)