Taylor Swift Terror Plot: Police Reveal New Details on Planned Concert Attack

Authorities have more information on the terror attack plot that resulted in the cancelation of Taylor Swift’s Vienna concerts. 

One day after authorities arrested a 19-year-old for allegedly plotting attacks at large events around Vienna, Austria, including Swift’s three-night Eras Tour residency, they shared the suspect has confessed more details regarding the plan; and authorities have discovered more information regarding other suspects. 

Officials explained in an Aug. 8 press conference that the man, who has been classified as a primary suspect, confessed that he had planned to kill himself and a “large number” of other people with knives and explosive devices.

Head of Austria's Directorate of State Security and Intelligence Omar Haijawi-Pirchner explained during the conference, per NBC News, that the suspect, who is an Austrian native with North Macedonian roots, had downloaded manuals for bomb building. 

Authorities were also able to determine paraphernalia in the prime suspect’s apartment included hydrogen peroxide, homemade explosives, detonators and detonator cables. Haijawi-Pirchner noted that explosives had already been assembled. 

And they’ve expressed relief that they were able to stop the attack.

“A tragedy was prevented,” Austria’s Minister of the Interior Gerhard Karner explained during the press conference, per NBC News. “The situation was serious, the situation is serious.”

Haijawi-Pirchner gave further details on the second suspect who was arrested on the afternoon of Aug. 7, a 17-year-old Austrian citizen with Turkish and Croatian roots. The directorate said that the second suspect had been employed by a company that would have provided services at Swift’s Vienna shows—although the specificity of their service was not clarified.

In the home of the second suspect, Haijawi-Pirchner said authorities had found materials for the Salafi-jihadist group ISIS, as well as Al-Qaeda, alongside screenshotted images and videos of home laboratories. 

Haijawi-Pirchner noted that authorities were currently questioning a third suspect, a 15-year-old Austrian national with Turkish roots, but that no other parties are being sought out in connection to this specific terrorist plot. He added that others “may have known” about the plan and are a part of an ongoing investigation. 

Following the cancelation of Swift’s Aug. 8, Aug. 9, and Aug. 10 shows at Ernst Happel Stadium, the metropolitan police in London, UK—the next stop on her tour—confirmed to the Associated Press that there is no “indicated link” between the Austrian terror plot and the upcoming Wembley Stadium concerts, set to kick off Aug. 15. 

During her 18-year career, the Grammy winner has only canceled shows in extreme circumstances, including her Lover Fest concerts due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a 2014 concert in Thailand when the country was enforcing curfews with military force following anti-government protests. 

After postponing an Eras Tour show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, due to extreme temperatures in 2023, Taylor said in a statement, “The safety and well-being of my fans, fellow performers, and crew has to and always will come first.”

E! News has reached out to reps for Swift regarding the terrorist plot and subsequently canceled shows as well as her upcoming London shows, but has not yet heard back. 

(E! News and NBC News are both a part of NBCUniversal).

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