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Authorities have charged a young Syrian national with supporting a foreign terror group in connection to a foiled plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last August, highlighting ongoing concerns about potential threats to large-scale events.
Mohamed A, identified as a juvenile by German authorities and not currently in custody, is accused of following the ideology of Islamic State (IS) and assisting another suspect in preparing the attack. The threat led to the cancellation of Swift's three sold-out Eras Tour shows at Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium, impacting tens of thousands of fans.
Authorities arrested several suspects at the time saying they appeared to have been inspired by IS and al-Qaeda.
"Mohammad A has adhered since April 2024 at the latest to the ideology of the terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS)," Germany's federal public prosecutor said in a statement.
"Between mid-July and August 2024, he was in contact with a young adult from Austria who was planning a bomb attack on a concert by singer Taylor Swift in Vienna."
Sixty-five thousand fans had bought tickets for Swift's three concerts on 8-10 August, and the singer later apologised for the cancellation, speaking of the "tremendous amount of guilt" she felt. She said she had decided to throw all her energy into the shows at the end of her European tour in London.
The main suspect in the case has been identified as Beran A, who authorities say was part of an IS cell in eastern Austria.
Beran A, who is now 20 and from Ternitz south of Vienna, was arrested before the concerts following a tip-off by the CIA, which said the plotters had hoped to kill a large number of concert-goers.
Reports suggested it was part of a co-ordinated plot involving three simultaneous IS attacks but Beran A had changed his mind at the last minute.
According to the federal prosecutor in Germany, Mohammad A had helped the main suspect with a translation of bomb-making instructions from Arabic as well as making contact with a member of IS abroad over the internet.
