The CIA has said it believes suspects in a foiled plot to attack fans outside a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna earlier this month plotted to kill “tens of thousands of people”.
CIA Deputy Director David Cohen spoke at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Maryland this week about the plot, which was thwarted when the CIA thwarted the plan and made arrests.
“They were planning to kill a huge number of people at the concert, tens of thousands of people, including many Americans,” Cohen said, according to the Associated Press. “The planning was well advanced.”
Three Swift concerts scheduled in the Austrian capital were cancelled after the CIA notified Austrian authorities of a terror plot targeting the concert venues.
The sold-out Eras Tour dates were cancelled following the detention of three suspects believed to have ties to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
“The Austrian authorities were able to make this arrest because our own government and intelligence partners provided them with information about what this ISIS-linked group was planning,” Cohen said.
One of the suspects, a 19-year-old Austrian man, was said to be inspired by ISIS and was allegedly planning to target fans outside the stadium, where 30,000 people were expected to gather, according to the Associated Press. He planned to use knives and homemade explosives in the attack.
Investigators searched his home and found chemicals and technical equipment.
The singer broke her silence two weeks later, describing the show's cancellation as “devastating.”
“Learning the reasons for the cancellation left me with a new sense of fear and immense guilt that so many people had planned to attend the show,” Swift said, thanking authorities.
Cohen praised the CIA's work in thwarting the attack.
“I'm sure there were some in my department and in other departments who thought it was a really good day at Langley,” he said, referring to the CIA's headquarters in Virginia, “and not just my own guy, Swifty.”
The Associated Press contributed.
