ISIS-inspired suspect planned suicide attack at Taylor Swift concert, Austrian authorities say
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Police in Austria have questioned three teenagers suspected of plotting a suicide attack at a Taylor Swift show, sparking renewed concerns over the indoctrination of young people online.
Foreign intelligence agencies helped authorities uncover the alleged scheme, according to the country’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. A source familiar told CNN that the US issued a warning to authorities in Vienna.
Organizers canceled three concerts, which were scheduled to take place in the European capital from Thursday to Saturday. CNN has reached out to Swift’s representatives for comment.
Investigators unearthed a stockpile of chemicals, explosive devices, detonators and 21,000 euros in counterfeit cash at the home of the main suspect, a 19-year-old ISIS sympathizer who had been radicalized online, according to authorities.
The young man – who was arrested Wednesday morning in the eastern town of Ternitz – planned to kill himself and “a large number of people,” according to the head of the domestic intelligence agency, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.
“He said he intended to carry out an attack using explosives and knives,” Haijawi-Pirchner told reporters in Vienna on Thursday. “His aim was to kill himself and a large number of people during the concert, either today or tomorrow.”
Two other suspects were detained, aged 17 and 15. The 17-year-old worked for a facilities company that would have provided services at the concert venue. He was near the stadium when he was arrested and had recently broken up with his girlfriend, according to Haijwai-Pirchner.
Little has been revealed about the 15-year-old. Prosecutors will decide later if he was a witness or directly involved in the alleged plot.
The three are all Austrian-born with either Turkish, North Macedonian or Croatian backgrounds.
