Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour concerts scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday (August 8-10) at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium have been canceled, after government officials thwarted a planned terrorist attack that was set to take place at the events.
Austrian ticket agency Barracuda Music said in a statement on social media that “with confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety. All tickets will be automatically refunded within the next 10 business days.”
According to NBC News, two men were arrested in Austria on Wednesday for plotting an attack at one of the Swift concerts and other major events in Austria. Both were radicalized online, and one, a 19-year-old who pledged allegiance to the ISIS terrorist organization was allegedly found with suspicious chemical substances upon his arrest, Per the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung, the two men were planning an attack on Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium, where Taylor Swift was set to perform Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights as a part of the European leg of her tour. Local law enforcement were originally tipped off about a potential threat to the concert by “foreign security authorities.” Police raided the 19-year-old suspects parents’ home in the nearby town of Ternitz, and found various chemicals and substances that could have been used to build a bomb.
During a news conference held on Wednesday, Vienna State Police Director Franz Ruf and Police Chief Gerhard Purstl said both suspects had “radicalized” via the internet, sworn allegiance to ISIS “a few weeks ago,” and had specifically organized how the attack was going to take place.
Police initially said the shows would go on amid increased security measures as the ‘terror threat had been extinguished and the concrete danger has been minimized,” but that decision was since reversed.
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