Aug 29, 2024 09:24 AM IST
“They were plotting to kill large numbers of people, thousands of them, at this concert, including, I’m sure, many Americans,” said CIA Deputy Director David S. Cohen.
A CIA official has revealed that a terrorist plot at Taylor Swift’s Vienna concert aimed to kill “thousands” of fans. The foiled terror plot led to the cancellation of all three of the singer’s Eras Tour concerts in Austria earlier this month.
“They were plotting to kill large numbers of people, thousands of them, at this concert, I’m sure many Americans,” CIA Deputy Director David S. Cohen said at an annual intelligence summit outside Washington, D.C., according to the New York Times.
“The Austrians were able to make these arrests because our partners in the agency and the intelligence community provided them with information about what this ISIS-linked group was planning to do,” he said.
Cohen did not say how the CIA learned of the alleged plot during the summit on Wednesday, August 28. Three people were arrested in connection with the incident, including a 19-year-old Austrian, a 17-year-old Austrian and an 18-year-old Iraqi. Officials said the plot was inspired by the Islamic State group.
‘His aim was to kill himself and a large number of people’
On August 8, Omar Hajjawi-Pirchner, the head of Austria’s State Security and Intelligence Directorate, said in a news conference that the 19-year-old Austrian suspect had confessed that he planned to attack Swift’s concert “using explosives and knives.” According to Le Monde, he said, “His aim was to kill himself and a large number of people during the concert today or tomorrow.” The three shows were likely attended by about 200,000 people.
Swift recently broke her silence on the incident in a lengthy Instagram post. “Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating. The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear and a lot of guilt because so many people had planned to come to those shows,” she wrote. “But I am also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving for the concerts, not for the lives they lost.”
