Three Taylor Swift concerts scheduled for this week in Vienna have been canceled after authorities arrested two people on suspicion of planning attacks on public events in the Vienna area.
The announcement was made late Wednesday by concert promoter Barracuda Music after Austrian authorities said they had arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of plotting an Islamist attack in the Vienna area, and suggested Swift’s concert was a “focal point” of the plot.
Austria’s security chief, Franz Ruff, told a news conference the man had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group “in recent weeks” and was detained in southern Austria, about an hour from the capital, early on Wednesday.
“We have established corresponding preparatory acts and have also confirmed that a 19-year-old perpetrator has set his sights on Taylor Swift’s Vienna concert,” Ruff said.
The Austrian national is believed to have been radicalised online, and chemicals had been seized from the suspect’s home and were being analysed, Ruff said.
A second person believed to have had contact with the suspect was arrested in Vienna.
The Swifts were scheduled to play at Ernst Happel Stadium in the Austrian capital on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
“For everyone’s safety, we have been forced to cancel three scheduled shows,” Barracuda Music said in an Instagram post late Wednesday.
Approximately 65,000 spectators were expected for each performance.
In November 2020, a convicted Islamic State sympathizer went on a mass shooting in central Vienna, killing four people and wounding 23 before being shot dead by police, the country’s first deadly jihadist attack.
