An alarm has sounded in Europe after the arrest in Vienna of a young Austrian jihadist originally from North Macedonia. The man, according to what he confessed to the authorities, intended to devastate Taylor Swift’s concert in the Austrian capital.
The 19-year-old intended to either carry out a suicide attack or drive a car into the crowd and then carry out knife attacks. The young man belonged to an Islamic State cell along with two other young Austrians, aged 17 and 15, who were also arrested on Wednesday.
Chemicals, machetes and bomb-making devices were found in his home in the town of Ternic. The suspect was planning a suicide mission among the thousands of spectators who would attend one of the three scheduled concerts of the American pop star in Vienna. It would be held outside the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna.
Authorities sketched a picture of the main suspect who became radicalized, changed his appearance and began practicing Islamic propaganda on the Internet. He quit his job on July 25, telling people he had “big plans.” A neighbor told Austrian broadcaster Puls24 that the suspect lived alone and had grown a “Taliban beard”.
His 17-year-old accomplice, originally from Turkey and Croatia, had been hired a few days ago by a company that provided services at the particular stadium, according to security officials.
Event promoter Barracuda Music has canceled Swift’s three concerts in Vienna, which were due to start on Thursday. They were sold out and each would be watched by 65,000 people. American television network ABC reported that Austrian authorities received information about the threat to Swift’s concerts from US intelligence services.
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