Wegen Terrorgefahr mussten drei ausverkaufte Konzerte der Musikerin Taylor Swift in Wien am späten Mittwochabend abgesagt werden. Zuvor waren im Großraum der österreichischen Hauptstadt zwei junge Männer festgenommen worden, die verdächtigt werden, einen Anschlag vorbereitet zu haben. Sie sollen konkret die Konzerte im Stadion im Wiener Prater ins Visier genommen haben.
Der Veranstalter sagte daraufhin die für Donnerstag, Freitag und Samstag geplanten Konzerte kurzfristig ab. „Aufgrund der Bestätigung durch Regierungsbeamte über einen geplanten Terroranschlag im Ernst-Happel-Stadion, haben wir keine andere Wahl, als die drei geplanten Shows zur Sicherheit aller abzusagen”, teilte die Firma Barracuda Music auf “Instagram” mit. Alle Tickets – pro Konzert rund 65.000 – sollen demnach automatisch innerhalb der nächsten zehn Werktage rückvergütet werden. Weitere Informationen seien auf dieser Webseite zu finden.
According to Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, the situation was very serious. “Thanks to the intensive cooperation between our police and the newly established DSN (Directorate of State Security and Intelligence) with foreign services, the threat was identified early on, combated and a tragedy prevented,” Nehammer wrote on Wednesday evening on the X platform. The emergency services are currently investigating at full speed.
“We live in a time in which violent means are being used to attack our Western way of life,” wrote Nehammer. Islamist terrorism threatens security and freedom in many Western countries. It is important to remain vigilant, stand together and take decisive action against Islamism.
For all fans in Austria, the cancellation of the Taylor Swift concerts is a bitter disappointment.
The police operation began with a major raid in Ternitz, Lower Austria, near Vienna. A 19-year-old man was taken into custody there. In the evening, the Interior Ministry announced at a press conference that another arrest had been made in Vienna that afternoon. According to a report by ORF television, the arrest took place in the vicinity of the stadium and the subway station there.
19-year-old is said to have become radicalised on the Internet
The general director of public security, Franz Ruf, said that the 19-year-old man had taken an “oath of allegiance” to the Islamist terrorist organization IS. “We have identified corresponding preparatory actions and also that the 19-year-old perpetrator is focused on the Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna,” said Ruf. According to the current status of the investigation, the accused – the 19-year-old is an Austrian citizen, no further details were given for the second – “radicalized themselves on the Internet,” it said. Chemical substances were seized and are “currently being evaluated,” said Ruf. The house search in Ternitz is ongoing, it said.
Vienna's state police chief Gerhard Pürstl said at the press conference in the early evening that the concrete danger had been minimized, but that an abstract danger was present. The “anti-terror component” was also being increased, which meant that special forces were on site, including in plain clothes. It was initially unclear whether the assessment of the situation had changed over the course of the evening or whether the organizer had canceled the concerts for other reasons or because of his own differing assessment. Reports circulated in Austrian online media about other suspects who had allegedly not yet been caught.
The hours-long operation in Ternitz began on Wednesday morning. The 19-year-old was arrested in the morning hours. Parts of a retirement home and other buildings were subsequently evacuated as a precautionary measure and roadblocks were set up. Several buildings and around 60 households were affected, as Mayor Christian Samwald (SPÖ) told the Austria Press Agency. The Ternitz town hall was opened to provide people with food and drink. In the late afternoon, residents were able to return to their homes.
