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.
The trio were in contact with other individuals who knew about the plan, said the country’s director general for public security, Franz Ruf. No one else is being sought in direct connection with the plot, Ruf added.
Heinz-Peter Bader/AP
The cancellations of the Swift concert triggered an outpouring of heartbreak, grief and relief among Swifties hoping to attend the record-breaking Eras Tour in Vienna. Hailed as a cultural phenomenon, the scale, influence and intricacy of Swift’s musical voyage have made headlines for boosting the economies of the cities she visits.
The show-stopping tour began in Glendale, Arizona in March 2023, and has been extended several times. Vienna was scheduled to be the penultimate venue of the European leg, with Swift set to play five nights at London’s Wembley Stadium over the next two weeks, before moving on to Canada in November and December.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the city would “carry on” with the scheduled events, telling Sky News: “I’m sure Vienna has got its own reasons to cancel the Taylor Swift concerts, we’re going to carry on, working closely with police (and) ensuring that the Taylor Swift concerts can take place in London safely.”
Swifties trade friendship bracelets, serenade each other
A rush of excitement descended on the Austrian capital in the days leading up to the three-day fest, according to locals, with Swifties filling the cobbled streets and spontaneously breaking out into song.
Several fans who were planning to attend shows in Vienna told CNN they participated in a series of events Thursday that were staged in a community-led effort to rekindle the spirit and energy of the tour.
Footage has emerged of Swifties serenading each another at local squares in Vienna and trading personalized friendship bracelets – a concert tradition inspired by the lyrics on Swift’s song “You’re on Your Own, Kid” from her 10th studio album “Midnights.”
Julia Schnizlein, a pastor at the Lutheran City Church, told CNN that she bought tickets as a Christmas gift for her 14-year-old daughter, Leni, who was left heartbroken on Wednesday.
“We were really looking forward to the concert and have met a lot of fans over the last few days,” the 45-year-old said. “The whole city was full of happy, peaceful people exchanging bracelets and spontaneously singing together.”
Instead, the pastor opened the doors of her church to host a Swift-themed singalong for fans. Social media videos show people bopping their heads to melodies of some of the Grammy-winning artist’s greatest hits – including “Blank Space” and “Style” – as music blares from the speakers of the hall, illuminated by the glow of yellow candles.
“People were crying, holding hands, singing along softly,” said Kristi Hovington, 46, who wandered into the chapel after hearing tunes from the Eras Tour setlist. “It was such a beautiful moment, a pocket of beauty amidst the disappointment and anger.”
The school librarian journeyed from Barcelona, Spain, to attend the tour with her 14-year-old daughter, Esme, who had dreamed of seeing Swift live in concert. “She cried for an hour, at least; this was her dream, to see Taylor.”
Elsewhere in the capital, dozens of fans congregated at the Stephansplatz, a central square, to belt out an array of Swift songs. One participant, Elie Fares, said he was “devastated” for fans who had lost their chance to see the US pop star on tour.
“I just walked right over and basked in the camaraderie of it all, the way it exuded a lot of joie de vivre, a giant middle finger to all of those who wanted the squash that joy and instil fear,” added the 34-year-old physician, who has attended shows in the US and Europe.
“Swifties have shown time and time again that they are a formidable community among music fans,” he told CNN on Thursday. “In the grand scheme of what’s happening around the world today, we are all aware of where a concert cancellation falls, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be supportive of each other.”
Alleged Taylor Swift terror plot fits a worrying trend as ISIS targets teens online
What Austrian authorities have revealed about the alleged terror plot aimed at Taylor Swift’s three Vienna concerts adheres to a chilling pattern familiar to European counterterrorism officials.
The prime suspect is a 19-year-old who was arrested in Ternitz, about an hour’s drive from where Swift was scheduled to perform Thursday, Friday and Saturday for an expected 65,000 fans each night at the Ernst Happel Stadium.
The head of Austria’s domestic intelligence agency, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, said the suspect’s aim was to “kill himself and a large number of people.” In a raid on the suspect’s home police found chemical explosives, detonators, ISIS propaganda, knives and machetes. He even had a blue light used by police to attach to their cars, which could have helped him drive to the busy scene.
Two other suspects are being questioned: a 17-year-old who recently broke up with his girlfriend and who worked for a company that provides services to the venue, and a 15-year-old boy who prosecutors are still determining if they were directly involved. All are Austrian-born and have either Turkish, Croatian or North Macedonian backgrounds.
The 19 and 17-year-old suspects had been radicalized online, police said, adding the 19-year-old had sworn allegiance to ISIS’ new leader last month.
Police also alluded to the role of social media in both the radicalization of the suspects and alleged planning of the attacks.
“Communication of the perpetrators is undertaken usually in an encrypted form,” often masking their conversations from routine counter-terror surveillance, General Director for Public Security Franz Ruf told reporters.
Online chatter to action
The path of online teenage chatter turning to real-world plotting has become alarmingly common in recent months. A study by terrorism expert Peter Neumann, which CNN reported last month, showed teenagers accounted for nearly two thirds of ISIS-linked arrests in Europe in the previous nine months.
The study of 27 ISIS-linked attacks or disrupted plots since October last year revealed that of the 58 suspects, 38 were aged between 13 and 19, according to Neumann, professor of Security Studies at King’s College London. CNN verified most of Neumann’s data with European security officials.
Neumann noted the latest Europol data showed “the number of attacks and planned attacks has more than quadrupled” since 2022.
Among the cases Neumann referenced was another in Austria, in which a 14-year-old girl from Montenegro was arrested in May in the southern city of Graz after buying a knife and axe for an attack she was allegedly plotting. ISIS material was also found on her computer.
Teenagers were also arrested during France’s security sweep ahead of the Paris Olympics.
In late May, an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin was indicted for “terrorist criminal association,” for alleged plans to target spectators in the city of Saint-Étienne during the Games, according to a statement from French anti-terror prosecutors.
About a fortnight earlier, two teenagers were arrested in northeast and southern France for plotting a terror attack, the target unclear, the statement said.
And in April, a 16-year-old from the Haute-Savoie department in southeastern France was arrested for allegedly researching how to make an explosives belt and die as an ISIS martyr, possibly targeting the Olympics, the statement added.
German police have also publicized two alleged terror plots involving teenagers in recent months.
In April, officials in the western city of Dusseldorf said they arrested two girls, aged 15 and 16, and a 15-year-old boy accused of planning a terror attack.
Another alleged plot involving a possible knife attack on a Heidelberg synagogue, which was disrupted in May, involved an 18-year-old man, a German prosecutor’s statement said.
Meanwhile in Switzerland, police in March arrested a 15-year-old Swiss boy and a 16-year-old Italian boy for alleged ISIS support and plotting bomb attacks, according to a police statement.
Neumann, the terrorism expert, said teenagers were often recruited online, where ISIS and its Central Asian affiliate ISIS-K only needed to see success in a handful from hundreds of potential recruits.
“Groups like (ISIS-K are) specifically targeting young teenagers,” Neumann said. “They may not be very useful. They may mess up. They may change their mind,” he said, but they are “not least less suspicious. Who would think of a 13-year-old as a terrorist? One is enough.”
Teenagers were being recruited through social media platforms like TikTok, dragged through algorithms into “bubbles” online where jihadist recruiters can reach them, Neumann said.
ISIS-K was “by far the most ambitious and aggressive part of ISIS right now,” plotting complex attacks and recruiting online, he added.
A TikTok spokesperson told CNN last month: “We stand firmly against violent extremism and remove 98% of content found to break our rules on promoting terrorism before it is reported to us.”
While details of the alleged plans to attack Swift’s concerts remain unclear, European security sources have been increasingly concerned that terror plots are becoming more “directed” – or organized by a more experienced or resourced recruiter from afar.
A British security source told CNN the so-called “directed terror threat” had become a greater concern over the past 18 months, with ISIS-K the most potent group under scrutiny. Young people accessing extremist spaces and media online also continues to be a significant issue, the source said.
European counter-terror officials are also struggling with a fast-morphing terror threat emerging from parts of the former Soviet Union, including Russia’s North Caucasus region and Central Asian states like Tajikistan.
Last month, Austrian counter-terror police said they had detained eight men and a woman for fundraising for ISIS. Laptops, cash, fake passports and a vehicle were confiscated, and authorities said the suspects, originally from Chechnya in the Russian Federation, might have their Austrian residence permits revoked.
This story has been updated with new information on the suspects.
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