Vienna, Aug 7, 2024 (AFP) – The Vienna leg of a tour by American mega-star Taylor Swift has been cancelled after Austria arrested an Islamic State sympathiser in reference to an assault plot, the organisers mentioned Wednesday.
Authorities had earlier confirmed the arrest of a 19-year-old sympathiser of the armed group for allegedly planning an assault within the Vienna area, warning he had a “focus” on Swift’s three upcoming shows.
“With affirmation from authorities officers of a deliberate terrorist assault at Ernst Happel Stadium, we have now no alternative however to cancel the three scheduled shows for everybody’s security,” Barracuda Music mentioned on Instagram.
The organisers added that each one ticket holders would obtain refunds. About 65,000 spectators have been anticipated at every present scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The man, who had pledged his allegiance to IS “in current weeks”, was detained in Lower Austria about an hour from the capital early on Wednesday, Austria’s prime safety chief Franz Ruf advised a press convention.
“We have established corresponding preparatory acts and likewise that there’s a focus of the 19-year-old perpetrator on the Taylor Swift live shows in Vienna,” Ruf mentioned.
He mentioned that chemical substances had been seized on the suspect’s house.
A second individual believed to have been in touch with the suspect was arrested in Vienna.
According to the preliminary investigation, each suspects radicalised themselves on the web.
Police had promised to ramp up safety measures, together with deploying particular models for the live shows, whereas having minimised any concrete hazard.
– ‘Shocked, unhappy’ –
In the official “Swifties” fan group on WhatsApp, panic ensued following the announcement of the shows’ cancellation with directors overwhelmed with hundreds of messages.
Marie Sereinig, 15, who had travelled from the south of the Alps to attend the present along with her aunt, had spent months planning her outfit for the live performance.
“I’m merely shocked and really unhappy. But I can even perceive that Taylor Swift would not dare go on stage in these situations,” she advised AFP.
Other followers additionally shared their dismay.
“I do not actually have any phrases,” mentioned Flora Zoe Koberwein, a 20-year-old pupil, including, “sorry for individuals who have travelled to date”.
Conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer referred to as the cancellation “a bitter disappointment” for followers in a submit on X, including that the “very critical” menace had been combatted early to stop any tragedy.
The 34-year-old pop star was as a result of convey her record-breaking “Eras” Tour, which started its European leg in Paris in May, to Vienna on Thursday.
Following France, the tour stopped in Sweden, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Poland, having a big affect on the native economies at every cease.
In Austria, greater than 170,000 spectators have been anticipated to attend the shows, bringing in some 100 million euros, based on estimates by the information company APA.
By the top of the yr, “Eras” had already grow to be the primary tour to promote greater than $1 billion in tickets and it’s on monitor to greater than double that by the point it concludes in Vancouver this December.
Austria skilled its first lethal jihadist assault in November 2020, when a convicted IS sympathiser went on a taking pictures rampage in downtown Vienna, killing 4 and wounding 23 others earlier than police shot him lifeless.
