(Bloomberg) -- Taylor Swift shows planned for this week in Vienna have been canceled after Austrian police arrested two people on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.
Concerts for the American pop megastar were canceled after the Austrian government confirmed the planned terror attack at the Ernst Happel Stadium, concert organizer Barracuda Music said on its website. A government spokesman said the decision was made by the organizer.
The singer-songwriter was scheduled to perform three shows in Vienna as part of her Eras Tour on Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the tour’s final European performances in London.
Police arrested a 19-year-old Austrian citizen in Ternitz, Lower Austria, on Wednesday morning under the suspicion he was planning attacks against mass events in Vienna, Director General Franz Ruf told reporters. The unnamed person had been radicalized by Islamic State and had focused on Taylor Swift’s concerts as a potential target, he said.
Officials found chemical substances at his home, and later detained another person in Vienna.
Austrian officials in recent years have arrested a number of people affiliated with Islamist and far-right groups, though terrorist incidents have been rare. In 2020, a gunman killed four and wounded more than a dozen in an attack claimed by IS.
(Updates with background details beginning in the third paragraph)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
