A 19-year-old Austrian teenager with North Macedonian roots planned to kill “as many people as possible” with knives and explosives, officials said.
Austrian officials said they arrested three male teenagers on Wednesday on suspicion of planning an attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, the threat of which prompted organizers to cancel three of the singer’s shows.
The main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian citizen, was arrested in the town of Ternitz, about 30 miles from Vienna, said the head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.
Haijawi-Pirchner said at a news conference on Thursday that the suspect was planning a suicide attack with knives and explosives that would kill “as many people as possible” at the concert.
Officials said they found explosives, detonators, and chemicals in the 19-year-old’s home, and that he’d been researching bomb-making techniques.
The young man was “clearly radicalized” by the Islamic State and had posted an oath of allegiance to the terrorist organization’s leader, Haijawai-Pirchner said.
He is cooperating with authorities and fully admitted to the plot, Haijawi-Pirchner added.
