A Central Intelligence Agency official said the individuals arrested in relation to the thwarted terrorist attacks on Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” Austria concerts had plotted to kill “tens of thousands of people.”
Speaking at an Intelligence and National Security Summit in Maryland on Wednesday, CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said the agency provided Austrian authorities with information that allowed them to arrest “four individuals who were plotting to attack a Taylor Swift concert.”
“They were found with explosives, they were found with bomb-making material, and they had access to the venue,” Cohen said. “They were plotting to kill a huge number, tens of thousands of people at this concert, including, I’m sure, many Americans.”
“The Austrians were able to make those arrests because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community provided them information about what this ISIS-connected group was planning to do,” he added, saying that “hundreds of lives undoubtedly were saved.”
The pop star was supposed to perform three shows from August 8 to 10 at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium for an estimated 200,000-person audience.
However, Austrian concert promoter Barracuda Music announced the cancellation via Instagram, saying, “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.”
Swift herself stayed mum about the concert cancellations until she finished the Europe leg of her tour.
“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating. The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt,” she wrote in an Instagram post on August 21.
“But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she added.
