Teenage Suspects Radicalised, Planned To Kill A 'Large Crowd' At Cancelled Taylor Swift Concerts

The main suspect, who would have reportedly carried out a terror attack at Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna if they weren’t cancelled, was only 19 years old and was planning a “bloodbath,” Reuters reports.

The suspect, who reportedly has North Macedonian roots, made a full confession in custody on Thursday (8 August), revealing that he’d pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS) and had chemicals to build a bomb, machetes, and knives in his home in Ternitz with the plan to kill a “large crowd” and then commit suicide.

Two other teenagers – a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old – were also questioned by police for their alleged involvement in the reported terror plot.

Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, said that the main suspect had plans to “kill himself and a large crowd at the concert either today or tomorrow,” per Sky News UK.

Haijawi-Pirchner added that the suspect was “clearly radicalised in the direction of the Islamic State (IS) and thinks it is right to kill infidels.”

According to reports, a 17-year-old suspect, a reported Austrian citizen with a Turkish and Croatian background, had started working a job in security at the Vienna concert venue Ernst Happel Stadium just days before the Taylor Swift shows were cancelled.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said, “The main perpetrator has confessed that he was supposed to carry out a suicide attack with two accomplices. The suspects actually had very specific and detailed plans ... to leave a bloodbath in their wake.”

Taylor Swift’s three concerts in Vienna, which would have drawn a sold-out 65,000 audience each and over 20,000 expected to be outside the venue, as has been seen across other Eras tour dates around the world, were cancelled as a precautionary move.

Sharing news of the cancellation yesterday, event organiser Barracuda Music, in conjunction with Taylor Swift’s management, wrote on Instagram: “We have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone's safety.”

Taylor Swift has yet to comment on the situation. Her upcoming shows at London’s Wembley Stadium, starting on Thursday, 15 August, are set to continue.