Details of the chilling terrorist attack that threatened Taylor Swift’s concerts are revealed

Austria is still in shock over the arrest of two teenagers who converted to Islam and were planning to carry out an attack during one of the three concerts that Taylor Swift was scheduled to give in Vienna (Thursday, Friday and Saturday). All of them have been cancelled as a precaution despite the fact that the police had intensified security measures. On Thursday, several media outlets have revealed new details of the terrorist operation, which is believed to have put the lives of 65,000 people at risk.

The arrested teenage suspects, aged 17 and 19, were planning an ISIS-style terror attack: one of them would drive a car full of homemade explosives towards the crowd to kill as many as possible while the other would attack with a large machete. According to police reports, both had been hired by the stadium security and thus had access to the interior and private areas of the Ernst Happel Stadium. Chancellor Karl Nehammer said: “The suspects had very specific and detailed plans to leave a bloodbath in their wake”.

The alleged ringleader, a 19-year-old Austrian with roots in North Macedonia, had chemicals and technical devices hidden in his home when it was raided by authorities, according to the New York Post, and the bomb he planned to strap to the car was already under construction. The second suspect, a 17-year-old Austrian citizen with Turkish and Croatian roots, was captured by special police forces near the stadium where Taylor Swift’s concerts were scheduled.

Police had been monitoring the two young men for weeks, who had displayed strange behaviour: one of them left his job on 25 July because he had “planned something big”, according to his friends, while the other left his girlfriend without reason. The ringleader has confessed to having sworn allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State and has admitted the attack plan: “He is clearly radicalized and believes it is right to kill infidels”they said at a press conference.

The Interior Minister said that “the situation was serious, but we can say that a tragedy was avoided,” while Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler commented on X: “For many, a dream has been shattered today. For three nights in Vienna, tens of thousands of Swifties should have celebrated life together. I am so sorry that you have been denied this. Stand together, hate and terror cannot destroy that.”