Austrian law enforcement thwarted a terrorist attack at Taylor Swift's shows in Vienna this week, the latest example of an attempted act of terrorism at a musical performance.
The primary alleged perpetrator in this case, a 19-year-old, confessed to law enforcement that he started planning the attack last month and uploaded an oath of allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State group a couple of weeks ago.
Franz Ruf, director general for public security at the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, said investigators found chemical substances and technical devices during a raid of the suspect's home in Ternitz, Austria, according to the Associated Press . Law enforcement also found ISIS and al Qaeda material in the home of another suspect, who is 17.
He was “clearly radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State and thinks it is right to kill infidels,” said Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence.
Organizers canceled three of Swift's concerts, scheduled from Thursday to Saturday. Austrian Foreign Minister Gerhard Karner said the attack was planned for Thursday or Friday. Organizers believed up to 65,000 fans would attend each concert with about half as many expected to stand outside the arena, where the suspects intended to carry out their attack.
“He said he intended to carry out an attack using explosives and knives,” Haijawi-Pirchner told reporters in Vienna on Thursday, per CNN . “His aim was to kill himself and a large number of people during the concert, either today or tomorrow.”
There have been several recent attempted ISIS attacks in Austria over the past couple of years that authorities have prevented.
"There has been a surge and notable momentum in the Islamic State's campaign to incite and guide supporters to violence, and the Austria plot is the latest development," Lucas Webber, the founder of the Militant Wire Research Network and a research fellow at the Soufan Center, told the Washington Examiner.
In March, ISIS took credit for carrying out a large terrorist attack on the outskirts of Moscow, in which four gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City Hall, a crowded concert venue, killing at least 137 people and injuring more. The assailants also set it on fire, leading to a partial collapse.
"Despite the Islamic State’s loss of physical territory, the group still very much exists and has not lost its support from those that buy into its ideology around the world," Devorah Margolin, a senior fellow with the Washington Institute, told the Washington Examiner. "Furthermore, the Islamic State and its supporters have a history of focusing on 'soft targets' like concerts and music venues in Europe and North America, utilizing these locations to strike fear into the hearts of everyday people."
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In an unrelated attack, Hamas militants also targeted the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, in southern Israel. Approximately 260 people were killed at the festival, and several attendees are among the people Hamas took hostage.
In another infamous attack, an ISIS bomber detonated a bomb outside an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, 2017, in Manchester, England, killing 22 people and injuring more than 1,000. Eighteen months earlier, Paris's Bataclan venue was among a number of targets attacked by ISIS gunmen in the French capital. About 130 people were killed, 90 of whom were attending an Eagles of Death Metal concert.
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