Austrian Man Charged With Terrorism Over Alleged Plot to Attack Taylor Swift’s Vienna Concert
An Austrian man has been charged with terrorism offences over an alleged plan to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna during her 2024 Eras tour.
Prosecutors say the 21-year-old, identified as Beran A, is accused of being a member of the Islamic State, producing explosives and trying to buy weapons illegally. He is also alleged to have spread IS “propaganda material” online and researched a type of shrapnel bomb associated with the group. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
Authorities say he made a small amount of the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and sought guidance online about carrying out an attack. Investigators have also linked him to other alleged plans abroad, including in Dubai and Istanbul, though those did not go ahead. Earlier reports suggested he had considered an attack in Dubai in March 2024 but backed out at the last moment.
The suspect was arrested in August 2024, shortly before Swift was due to begin a three-night run at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium. The shows were cancelled less than 24 hours before the first performance, with more than 195,000 fans expected to attend.
Swift later described the sudden cancellation of the Vienna shows as “devastating”. “The reason for the cancellations had filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to the shows,” she wrote. “But I was so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts, not lives.”
US intelligence played a role in stopping the alleged plot. “The United States has an enduring focus on our counterterrorism mission,” then-White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said at the time. “We work closely with partners all over the world to monitor and disrupt threats. And so as part of that work, the United States did share information with Austrian partners to enable the disruption of a threat to Taylor Swift's concerts there in Vienna.”
Three people were arrested in connection with the case in 2024, all of them teenagers at the time. A 16-year-old Syrian national was later given an 18-month suspended sentence in Germany under juvenile law.
Beran A has been in custody since his arrest.
