Man faces terrorism charges over attempted attack on Taylor Swift concert in Vienna

Austrian prosecutors on Monday filed terrorism-related charges against a 21-year-old defendant who they say planned for Attack on a superstar singer Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna in August 2024.

Vienna prosecutors said in a statement that the unnamed defendant had testified allegiance to the Islamic State group sharing propaganda material and videos through various messaging services.

Vienna prosecutors also accuse the defendant of having “obtained instructions on the Internet for the construction of a shrapnel bomb based on the triacetone triperoxide explosive” commonly used by IS, and of having produced a small quantity of the explosive.

Prosecutors also claim that the defendant had made “several attempts” to purchase weapons illegally outside the country and bring them to Austria.

Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of the State Security and Intelligence Directorate, said at the time of the suspect’s arrest that he wanted to kill “as many people as possible using the knives or even the explosive devices that he had made.”

Vienna prosecutors plan to open a criminal case against the unnamed suspect in Wiener Neustadt, a city near the Austrian capital.

The spokesman for the Vienna prosecutor’s office confirmed to The News that the accused is in custody. Austrian media identified the suspect as Beran A. and said he was arrested in August 2024.

A total of three suspects had been arrested and charged in connection with the plot, including a teenager who was convicted in a German court last year of preparing a serious act of violence and supporting a terrorist act of violence abroad. The Berlin court imposed an 18-month suspended sentence on Mohammad A., a Syrian citizen.

Austrian authorities canceled three Swift shows scheduled in Vienna in August 2024 after saying they foiled an apparent plot to attack Eras Tour performances.

The United States provided intelligence that contributed to the decision to cancel the concerts. The measure left tens of thousands of Swift fans.Many of whom had traveled to Vienna from other parts of the country or abroad specifically to see a show, were left devastated. Concert organizers in Austria said they expected up to 65,000 fans inside the Ernst Happel stadium at each concert and up to 30,000 spectators outside.

“The United States has an enduring focus on our counterterrorism mission. We work closely with partners around the world to monitor and disrupt threats. And so, as part of that work, the United States shared information with Austrian partners to enable the disruption of a threat to Taylor Swift’s concerts there in Vienna,” then-White House national security spokesman John Kirby said in August 2024.