German authorities have arrested a Syrian national on allegations of supporting a terrorist organization over the foiled terrorist attack for Taylor Swift‘s canceled Eras Tour concerts in Vienna last year.
In a press release, authorities identified the national as Mohammad A., a minor, saying that Mohammad had followed ideology of the terrorist group ISIS since at least April of 2024.
“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,” Germany’s prosecutor general said. “The accused assisted the adolescent in his preparations by, among other things, translating bomb-making instructions from Arabic and establishing contact with an IS member abroad via the internet. The accused also provided the adolescent with a text template for the oath of allegiance to IS, which he used to join the organization.”
The arrest comes over 10 months after Swift’s three Eras Tour shows in Vienna had to be canceled after a thwarted terrorist plot targeting her concert. Several others had been arrested in Austria after the foiled plot. According to the New York Times, the main suspect in the attack remains in jail amid the ongoing investigation, while a 17-year-old who was arrested was released with no charges filed.
The CIA’s former deputy director David S. Cohen said weeks later that the suspects “were plotting to kill a huge number, tens of thousands of people at this concert.”
“The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows,” Swift said in a statement after the cancellation. “But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives. I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together.”
