(WASHINGTON) — The suspects who plotted an attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna earlier this month planned to kill “a huge number” of people, according to a CIA official.
CIA Deputy Director David Cohen spoke about the foiled terror attack at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Bethesda, Maryland, on Wednesday.
“They were plotting to kill a huge number — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I am sure many Americans — and were quite advanced in this,” Cohen said at the summit. “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.”
“As a result, hundreds of lives, undoubtedly, were saved,” he added.
Three suspects — ages 17, 18 and 19 — have been arrested in connection with the plot. Intelligence officials said they were inspired by the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda, and that bomb-making materials were found in the 19-year-old Austrian citizen’s home.
Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of Austria’s Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, previously said the 19-year-old confessed to the plot under interrogation.
The suspect was “clearly radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State” and allegedly intended to kill himself and “as many people as possible” outside the concert venue using knives and homemade explosives, Haijawi-Pirchner said at a news conference shortly after the arrest.
Following the arrests, Swift canceled three sold-out concerts in Vienna, which more than 150,000 fans were expected to attend.
In an Instagram post after the canceled Eras Tour shows, Swift said it was “devastating” having to call off the Vienna tour dates.
“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 wrote
Swift thanked authorities for their work stopping the alleged attack.
“Thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she wrote.
Swift wrapped up her European leg of the tour with several shows in London, amid increased security, earlier this month.
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