Suspect in Foiled Terrorist Attack at Taylor Swift Shows Had Just Been Hired by Stadium Contractor

One of the two suspects arrested had very recently been hired by a company that was providing facility services to Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium. 

By Lauren Tousignant  |  August 8, 2024 | 12:11pm
Photo: Getty Images Latest
Suspect in Foiled Terrorist Attack at Taylor Swift Shows Had Just Been Hired by Stadium Contractor

On Wednesday, Taylor Swift’s three sold-out shows in Vienna were abruptly canceled after the Austrian government confirmed they’d thwarted an ISIS-style terrorist attack. “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, Swift’s tour organizer in Austria, wrote in a statement posted to Instagram.

Two suspects have since been arrested, a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old, both Austrian citizens, who both confessed to planning to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue,” according to the Associated Press. The outlet also reported that the 19-year-old recently posted an “oath of allegiance” to ISIS. He began working on the attack in July, planning to use “knives or homemade explosives,” then quit his job on July 25, writing that he “still had big plans.” Officials found bomb building manuals, as well as hydrogen peroxide, homemade explosives, detonators, and detonator cables in his apartment south of Vienna. A third 15-year-old suspect has also been taken in for questioning but hasn’t been arrested.

Neither of the suspects had a ticket to any of the three shows, but Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of Austria’s Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, told a news conference that the 17-year-old was very recently hired by a company that was providing services to the concert. Haijawi-Pirchner didn’t specify what services but German news outlet Kurier reported that it was a “facility management” company, which may have provided cleaning or security services.

“The situation was serious, the situation is serious. But we can also say: A tragedy was prevented,” Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said at the news conference. He was “clearly radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State and thinks it is right to kill infidels,” Haijawi-Pirchner added. “His goal was to kill himself and a large crowd of people.”

Concert organizers said they expected up to 65,000 fans inside the Ernst Happel Stadium for each of the three sold-out shows but also expected more than 30,000 fans to gather outside the stadium…which is where the suspects planned to attack.

Swift has yet to comment on the canceled shows. As of now, she’s still set to perform five nights at the U.K.’s Wembley Stadium starting August 15.

In 2019, Swift wrote that an attack at one of her concerts was “my biggest fear.” “After the Manchester Arena bombing and the [2017] Vegas concert shooting, I was completely terrified to go on tour this time because I didn’t know how we were going to keep 3 million fans safe over seven months,” she wrote in a piece for ELLE Magazine, referring to her 2018 reputation tour. “There was a tremendous amount of planning, expense, and effort put into keeping my fans safe.”

 
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