Taylor Swift will perform at London’s Wembley Arena on Friday, June 21, as part of her Eras tour.
Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP
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Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP
VIENNA — Organizers of three Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna canceled the concerts on Wednesday after officials announced the arrest of a person in an apparent plot to attack events including concerts in the Vienna area.
Swift was scheduled to play at the Ernst Happel Arena in the Austrian capital on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as part of her Eras tour.
“For everyone’s safety, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows,” event organizer Barracuda Music posted on its Instagram channel late Wednesday. It cited “confirmation” of plans for the stadium attack from government officials. .
Earlier on Wednesday, authorities said they had arrested two suspected extremists, one of whom appeared to be planning to attack an event in the Vienna area, such as an upcoming concert.
The main suspect, 19, was arrested in Ternitz, south of Vienna, and a second person was arrested in the Austrian capital.
Franz Ruf, head of public security at the Austrian Interior Ministry, said authorities were aware of “preparatory operations” for a possible attack “and that the 19-year-old perpetrator was following a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna”. The Austrian News Agency reports.
Ruf said the 19-year-old had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
The Austrian citizen is believed to have become radicalized online. Roof said the chemicals have been secured and are being evaluated. He gave no further details.
The cancellation came just hours after authorities said they would step up security at Swift’s concert. Roof said, among other things, special attention will be paid to admission screening and that concertgoers should plan for extra time.
Vienna Police Chief Gerhard Pulster meanwhile said that while any concrete danger had been minimized, the abstract risk justified increased security.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer posted on the social network X that “the cancellation of the Taylor Swift concert by the organizers is a painful disappointment for all fans in Austria.”
“The situation surrounding an apparently planned terrorist attack in Vienna is extremely serious,” he wrote. But he added that thanks to close cooperation between police, Austrian and foreign intelligence services, “threats can be identified early, addressed and tragedies averted.”
Barracuda Music stated that “all tickets will be automatically refunded within the next 10 business days.” The same wording was posted on Swift’s official website under the Vienna date.
According to the APA, tickets for the planned concert at Vienna Arena have been sold out, with an estimated 170,000 fans expected to attend the concert in Austria.
Swift’s fans took to social media to express their sadness at missing one of the superstar’s shows. Some people who posted on X lamented that months of hard work making friendship bracelets and picking out fashionable outfits for the show were now in vain.
Reporter Annmarie Timmins, who traveled from the United States for Thursday’s show, said she and her husband were waiting for the subway after dinner when they heard the news.
“I can’t even believe it,” she said. “There was a girl and her mother who looked sad – even sadder than me. I gave her one of my bracelets. I wanted to hug her.
In 2017, an attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, killed 22 people. Suicide bomber Salman Abedi planted a backpack bomb at Manchester Arena as thousands of young fans were preparing to leave after Grande’s concert. More than 100 people were injured. Abedi died in the explosion.
An official investigative report last year said Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 did not act quickly enough on key messages, missing a vital opportunity to prevent the bombings, the deadliest extremist attack in Britain in recent years.
