Teenage terrorists allegedly targeted as many as 20,000 Taylor Swift fans expected to gather outside the singer’s planned concerts at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium in a plot to kill as many people as possible, authorities say.
Swifties without tickets have begun a tradition of celebrating out front of stadiums on the Eras Tour where they can often hear the music even if they cannot see the superstar.
Police in Austria believe a 19-year-old suspect planned to drive a car into the fans. In Munich last week, more than 40,000 of the singer’s fans gathered outside the Olympic Stadium.
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U.S. intelligence learned about the plan and passed details on to Europol and the Austrians, according to ABC News.
Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said on Thursday that the 19-year-old suspect with Macedonian roots has admitted to the terror plot. He did not have a ticket for the concert.
Two others, one aged 17 and another 15, are also being questioned. The 17-year-old worked for a “facility company” that offered concert services in Vienna and was arrested at the stadium. He is said to have broken up with his girlfriend shortly before the planned attack, according to the German tabloid Bild.
Karner reportedly said the 19-year-old built a bomb made from the chemical TATP that he stole from work at a metal processing plant before quitting on July 25 and telling colleagues: “I still have big plans.”
The interior minister also said that the suspect also “hoarded knives, machetes, blank ammunition, counterfeit money, and a blue police light,” according to Bild.
The police light was to get to or from the scene of the Swift concert on Friday night.
Bild reported that the teenager watched Islamic State bomb-making videos and IS propaganda. He is also said to have sworn an oath of loyalty to the terrorist group in early July.
The 19-year-old was arrested in Vienna on Wednesday afternoon. Swift was due to perform in front of more than 170,000 fans in Vienna on August 8,9 and 10. The shows have now been canceled.
