Main suspect in attack plot on Taylor Swift’s Vienna concerts confesses: authorities

VIENNA — Austrian security officials said on Thursday that the main suspect in a foiled plot to attack the now-cancelled Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna has made a full confession.

The 19-year-old suspect had planned to “kill himself and a large number of people” with explosives and sharp weapons during Swift’s shows either on Thursday or Friday, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, director of state security and intelligence in the Austrian interior ministry, told a press conference on Thursday.

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The suspect was arrested Wednesday morning in Ternitz, a town south of Vienna, on suspicions of planning a terrorist attack on Swift’s concerts.

Haijawi-Pirchner said the suspect did not have a concert ticket, but wanted to kill people outside the Ernst Happel Stadium, the venue for the concerts, according to reports from Austrian news agency APA.

A second suspect was arrested near the stadium on Wednesday afternoon in connection to the attack plan.

Haijawi-Pirchner said on Thursday that authorities had found Islamic State organization and Al-Qaeda material at the home of the second suspect, a 17-year-old Austrian citizen. The 17-year-old was employed by a facility company that provides services in the stadium during the concerts.

The second suspect has so far refused to confess, APA reported according to Xinhua news agency.

Organisers on Wednesday evening canceled all three of Swift’s concerts in Vienna after Austrian authorities announced the two arrests.

Swift was scheduled to play in the Austrian capital on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as part of her widely popular Eras Tour. An estimated 170,000 fans would have attended the three concerts, according to APA.

Austrian interior minister Gerhard Karner told the press conference on Thursday that no other suspects are being sought after the two arrests.

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