The suspects who allegedly planned a foiled attack on a Taylor Swift concert in the Austrian capital Vienna earlier this month wanted to “kill a large number of people,” said CIA Deputy Director David Cohen.
The CIA employee also confirmed that the US secret service had provided information to the Austrian authorities to thwart the attack, which allegedly had links to the terrorist group “Islamic State”.
“They were planning to kill a huge number of people – tens of thousands of people at that concert, including, I’m sure, many Americans – and were pretty well advanced in doing so,” Cohen said at an intelligence and national security summit in Washington.
Three people were subsequently arrested in connection with this alleged plot.
“The Austrians were able to make these arrests because the agency and our intelligence partners provided them with information about the plans of this ISIS-affiliated group,” Cohen said.
What do we know about the alleged plot?
US superstar Taylor Swift was supposed to give three concerts in Vienna in August as part of her record-breaking Eras tour. However, these were cancelled at short notice after the authorities arrested two young men suspected of planning a terrorist attack.
According to investigators, a 19-year-old who is said to have sworn allegiance to the “Islamic State” had planned to attack fans of the US star waiting outside the stadium with explosives and knives.
Had the events not been cancelled, more than 60,000 people would have been in the stadium for the sold-out concerts, and tens of thousands more without tickets would have been expected to gather nearby to celebrate.
A third suspect was later arrested in Vienna in connection with the plot. The suspects, who are in custody, are being investigated on suspicion of membership in a terrorist group and a criminal organization.
What did Taylor Swift say about the canceled shows?
Swift broke her silence on the cancellations last week after completing her shows in London, which were supposed to be the next stop after Vienna.
“The cancellation of our Vienna shows was devastating,” she wrote in a statement on Instagram. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear and enormous guilt because so many people had planned to come to these shows.”
Swift thanked the authorities and said: “Thanks to them, we had to mourn concerts, not live performances.” Her Eras tour is now on hiatus until the fall.
dh/nm (AP, dpa)
