Taylor Swift concerts cancelled as suspect admits to planning suicide attack targeting fans

Swift had been scheduled to play at Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Taylor Swift's Vienna concerts have been cancelled. Picture: Charles McQuillan/TAS24/Getty Images 

Three Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna this week have been cancelled after police foiled a terror attack plot with a focus on the singer's Austrian Eras Tour dates.

A 19-year-old Austrian citizen had confessed to planning a suicide attack targeting fans outside the stadium, Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, told reporters on Thursday.

In Munich last month tens of thousands of fans without tickets gathered in a park outside the arena to hear Swift's show.  

Swift is yet to comment on the cancellations, with Austrian media reporting there are no plans for the shows to be held at a later date.

More than 170,000 people were expected to attend the shows at the Austrian capital’s Ernst Happel Stadium over Thursday, Friday and Saturday, including Irish fans who were travelling for the event. 

Barracuda Music said all tickets will be automatically refunded within the next 10 business days

Austrian authorities said they had arrested a 19-year-old man for allegedly planning an Islamist attack in the Vienna region. The man, who had pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group “in recent weeks”, was detained in Lower Austria about an hour from the capital early on Wednesday.

“We have established corresponding preparatory acts and also that there is a focus of the 19-year-old perpetrator on the Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna,” Ruf said.

The man, an Austrian citizen, is believed to have become radicalised on the internet. Chemical substances that could have been used to make a bomb were seized at the suspect's home. 

A 17-year-old believed to have been in contact with the suspect was also arrested in Vienna.

It comes a week after three children died and eight others suffered injuries following a stabbing at a Swift-themed dance class in Southport, England.

Following the attack, the singer wrote on Instagram that she was "completely in shock.” 

“The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families, and first responders,” she added. “These were just little kids at a dance class.”

“I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families,” she said.

Swift is due to play five sold-out dates at London’s Wembley stadium from next Thursday

• The Guardian