Suspects involved in the foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna sought to kill “tens of thousands” of fans, authorities reveal.
According to Austrian officials, at least four people connected to ISIS were involved in plotting an attack outside the stadium with explosives and knives. One of them, a 19-year-old, had reportedly “pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.”
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The concerts, part of the five-continent Eras Tour, were scheduled to start on August 8 and were expected to attract 200,000 people over three days. The first arrests only happened the day before the first show. The CIA caught wind of the plot and alerted local authorities before it was too late. The rest of the concerts were subsequently canceled.
CIA Deputy Director David Cohen, in comments during the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit, didn’t say how they heard of the planned attack.
“They were plotting to kill a huge number—tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I am sure many Americans—and were quite advanced in this,” Cohen said. “The Austrians were able to make those arrests because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community provided them information about what this ISIS-connected group was planning to do.”
Taylor Swift initially remained silent—as she had been advised for safety purposes—before speaking out last week on Instagram.
“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating,” she wrote in a statement. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.
“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she added.
Swift also expressed her gratitude to the authorities. “Thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”
