VIENNA: Both suspects in a foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift shows in Vienna appeared to be inspired by the Daesh group and Al-Qaeda, Austrian authorities said Thursday, and investigators found bomb-making materials at one of their homes.
Officials said one of the two confessed to planning to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue.”
Three sold-out concerts were canceled a day earlier because of the plot, devastating Swifties from across the globe, many of whom had dropped thousands of euros (dollars) on travel and lodging in Austria’s expensive capital city to attend the Eras Tour shows at the Ernst Happel Stadium, which sat empty Thursday morning aside from media filming outside.
Concert organizers said they stood behind their decision to cancel all three events, saying they expected up to 65,000 fans inside the stadium at each concert and as many as 30,000 onlookers outside. The foiled attack was planned for Thursday or Friday, according to Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner.
Officials told reporters that the 19-year-old Austrian suspect began working on his attack plans in July, and just a few weeks ago uploaded to the Internet an oath of allegiance to the current leader of the Daesh group militia. He planned to use knives or homemade explosives to carry out the attack outside the stadium.
He was “clearly radicalized in the direction of the Daesh and thinks it is right to kill infidels,” said Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, the head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence.
During a raid of his home in Ternitz, south of Vienna, investigators found chemical substances and technical devices that indicated “concrete preparatory acts,” said Franz Ruf, Director General for Public Security at the Ministry of the Interior.
Authorities also found Daesh group and Al-Qaeda material at the home of the second suspect, a 17-year-old Austrian. He was employed a few days ago by a company providing services at the venue for the concerts, and was arrested by special police forces near the stadium.
The suspects’ names were not released in line with Austrian privacy rules.
No other suspects are being sought, Karner, the interior minister, said. However, a 15-year-old, who had been in contact with both suspects, was also interrogated by police.
“The situation was serious, the situation is serious. But we can also say: A tragedy was prevented,” he said.
Concert organizers, Barracuda Music, said in an Instagram post late Wednesday that “we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety.”
It cited government officials’ confirmation of a planned attack at the stadium. Security officials and the organizers of the concerts, Barracuda Music, were in close contact about whether to cancel the shows, but in the end it was the organizer who made the call.
Europe is enamored with the American superstar, with the German town of Gelsenkirchen renaming itself “Swiftkirchen” before its mid-July concerts.
Austria’s Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler wrote on social platform X: “For many, a dream has been shattered today. On three evenings in Vienna, tens of thousands of #Swifties should have celebrated life together.”
“I am very sorry that you were denied this. Swifties stick together, hate and terror can’t destroy that,” Kogler added.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer posted on X that “the cancelation of the Taylor Swift concerts by the organizers is a bitter disappointment for all fans in Austria.”
“The situation surrounding the apparently planned terror attack in Vienna was very serious,” he wrote. But he added that, thanks to intensive cooperation between police and Austrian and foreign intelligence, “the threat could be recognized early on, tackled and a tragedy prevented.”
Barracuda Music said that “all tickets will be automatically refunded within the next 10 business days.” The same wording was posted under the Vienna dates on Swift’s official website.
The Vienna stadium had been sold out for the planned concerts, APA reported, with an estimated 170,000 fans expected for the concerts in Austria. Some who posted on X lamented months of now-wasted efforts to make friendship bracelets and pick out fashionable outfits for the performance.
Swift is expected to perform at London’s Wembley stadium in five concerts between Aug. 15 and 20 to close the European leg of her record-setting Eras Tour.
In 2017, an attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, killed 22 people. Suicide bomber Salman Abedi set up a knapsack bomb in Manchester Arena at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving. More than 100 people were injured. Abedi died in the explosion.
An official inquiry reported in 2023 that Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, didn’t act swiftly enough on key information and missed a significant opportunity to prevent the bombing, the deadliest extremist attack in the United Kingdom in recent years.
Officials say suspects in foiled plot at Taylor Swift shows hoped to kill as many people as possible
https://arab.news/ma4hh
Officials say suspects in foiled plot at Taylor Swift shows hoped to kill as many people as possible
- Officials said one of the two confessed to planning to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue”
- He was “clearly radicalized in the direction of the Daesh and thinks it is right to kill infidels,” said Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, the head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence
Australia to toughen gun laws as it mourns deadly Bondi attack
- Footage showed one man, identified by local media as fruit seller Ahmed al Ahmed, grabbing one of the gunmen as he fired
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese convened a meeting of leaders of Australia’s states and territories in response on Monday, agreeing with them “to strengthen gun laws across the nation”
SYDNEY: Australia’s leaders have agreed to toughen gun laws after attackers killed 15 people at a Jewish festival on Bondi Beach, the worst mass shooting in decades decried as antisemitic “terrorism” by authorities.
Dozens fled in panic as a father and son fired into crowds packing the Sydney beach for the start of Hanukkah on Sunday evening.
A 10-year-old girl, a Holocaust survivor and a local rabbi were among those killed, while 42 others were rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds and other injuries.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese convened a meeting of leaders of Australia’s states and territories in response on Monday, agreeing with them “to strengthen gun laws across the nation.”
Albanese’s office said they agreed to explore ways to improve background checks for firearm owners, bar non-nationals from obtaining gun licenses and limit the types of weapons that are legal.
Mass shootings have been rare in Australia since a lone gunman killed 35 people in the town of Port Arthur in 1996, which led to sweeping reforms long seen as a gold standard worldwide.
Those included a gun buyback scheme, a national firearms register and a crackdown on ownership of semi-automatic weapons.
But Sunday’s shooting has raised fresh questions about how the two suspects — who public broadcaster ABC reported had possible links to the Daesh group — obtained the guns.
- ‘An act of pure evil’ -
Police are still unraveling what drove Sunday’s attack, although authorities have said it targeted Jews.
Albanese called it “an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism on our shores.”
A string of antisemitic attacks has spread fear among Australia’s Jewish communities after the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
The Australian government this year accused Iran of orchestrating a recent wave of antisemitic attacks and expelled Tehran’s ambassador nearly four months ago.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Australia’s government of “pouring oil on the fire of antisemitism” in the months before the shooting, referring to Canberra’s announcement that it would recognize Palestinian statehood in August.
Other world leaders expressed revulsion, with US President Donald Trump condemning the “antisemitic attack.”
The gunmen opened fire on an annual celebration that drew more than 1,000 people to the beach to mark Hanukkah.
They took aim from a raised boardwalk at a beach packed with swimmers cooling off on the steamy summer evening.
Witness Beatrice was celebrating her birthday and had just blown out the candles when the shooting started.
“We thought it was fireworks,” she told AFP. “We’re just feeling lucky we’re all safe.”
Carrying long-barrelled guns, they peppered the beach with bullets for 10 minutes before police shot and killed the 50-year-old father.
The 24-year-old son was arrested and remains under guard in hospital with serious injuries.
Australian media named the suspects as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram.
Tony Burke, the home affairs minister, said the father arrived in Australia on a student visa in 1998 and had become a permanent resident. The son was an Australia-born citizen.
Hours after the shooting, police found a homemade bomb in a car parked close to the beach, saying the “improvised explosive device” had likely been planted by the pair.
Rabbi Mendel Kastel said his brother-in-law was among the dead.
“We need to hold strong. This is not the Australia that we know. This is not the Australia that we want.”
Wary of reprisals, police have so far avoided questions about the attackers’ religion or ideological motivations.
Misinformation spread quickly online after the attacks, some of it targeting immigrants and the Muslim community.
Police said they responded to reports on Monday of several pig heads left at a Muslim cemetery in southwestern Sydney.
- Panic and bravery -
A brave few dashed toward the beach as the shooting unfolded, wading through fleeing crowds to rescue children, treat the injured and confront the gunmen.
Footage showed one man, identified by local media as fruit seller Ahmed al Ahmed, grabbing one of the gunmen as he fired.
The 43-year-old wrestled the gun out of the attacker’s hands, before pointing the weapon at him as he backed away.
A team of off-duty lifeguards sprinted across the sand to drag children to safety.
“The team ran out under fire to try and clear children from the playground while the gunmen were firing,” said Steven Pearce from Surf Life Saving New South Wales.
Bleeding victims were carried across the beach atop surfboards turned into makeshift stretchers.
On Monday evening, a flower memorial next to Bondi Beach swelled in size as mourners gathered.
Hundreds, including members of the Jewish community, sang songs, clapped and held each other.
Leading a ceremony to light a menorah candle, a rabbi told the crowd: “The only strength we have is if we bring light into the world.”
