Police in Austria have arrested three teenagers for planning to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna. Head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, told a press conference the alleged ringleader is a 19-year-old Austrian citizen who was detained in the town of Ternitz, around 30 miles from the capital. During investigations, officers found explosives, detonators, and chemicals, as well as evidence that the 19-year-old had researched how to make bombs.
Officials said the suspects had expressed allegiance to ISIS but explained that all three are cooperating with authorities. The other suspects are aged 15 and 17, and both had ISIS propaganda in their homes. At least one of them has roots in Turkey and was arrested near the venue where Swift was due to give a concert.
The American superstar has canceled her concerts, which were scheduled to take place in Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium in early August. Organizers said they had “no choice” but to cancel the events and that all ticket holders would receive full refunds. The singer has not commented.
The news comes just weeks after three young British girls were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift dance class in England. The son of Rwandan immigrants, 17-year-old Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, was charged with three counts of murder and ten of attempted murder after crashing into the dance class, stabling people indiscriminately. The incident prompted nationwide demonstrations and riots across Britain, with people increasingly furious about the nation’s open-border immigration policies.
A motive for the killings in Southport, England, has not been established, although some commentators point to an anti-feminist backlash online – some of which centers on Taylor Swift. Attacks on concerts, however, are not new from an Islamist perspective, as Britain’s 2017 Manchester bombing shows. American singer Ariana Grande was performing on stage at the Manchester Arena when Salman Abedi and Hashem Abedi detonated a bomb that killed 22 people, including children, and injured hundreds.
Family members of the bombers said they took the drastic action because they were angry about Western policy in the Muslim world.
