2024-08-14 00:01:49
According to the police, the main suspect in the planned terrorist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna has “fully confessed”. Investigators are currently ruling out the possibility of anyone else being sought.
According to police, the main suspect in the possible terrorist attack on the Taylor Swift concert in Vienna has confessed fully. Authorities say that no other person is being sought apart from the two arrested.
The 19-year-old main suspect did not have a concert ticket but wanted to strike in the vicinity of the stadium, said Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of the State Security and Intelligence Directorate in the Federal Ministry of the Interior. He was part of an Islamist network that was known to the police. The suspect had found out about bomb-making online.
The 19-year-old said in his extensive confession that he intended to “kill himself and a large crowd of people either today or tomorrow,” Haijawi-Pirchner said on Thursday. “One thing is clear: he is clearly radicalized and thinks it is right to kill non-believers.”
It was also said that the main suspect quit his job on July 25 and announced that he had big plans, said the general director of public security, Franz Ruf. The second suspect, a 17-year-old, ended his relationship with his girlfriend. Both of them were clearly prepared to kill themselves, said Ruf.
According to the security authorities, the 19-year-old radicalized Islamist had been planning attacks and had also targeted the popular US singer’s shows in the Austrian capital. To be on the safe side, the three mass events this week were canceled less than 24 hours before Swift’s first planned performance on Thursday. According to the Austrian government, the threat situation was “very serious.”