Austria charges youngster over Taylor Swift concert attack plot

Austrian prosecutors have filed terror charges against a 21-year-old over a plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, they said on Monday, which had led the US megastar's shows in 2024 in the Alpine nation to be scrapped.

Three dates in Swift's record-breaking "Eras" tour were cancelled in the summer of 2024 after authorities warned of the plot.

The main suspect, who has been in detention since his arrest in August 2024, is facing terror offenses and other charges, prosecutors said.

The Austrian is accused of having been a member of a terror organization from May 2023 "by planning and preparing a terrorist attack on the concert of singer Taylor Swift," they said in a statement.

By sharing IS propaganda through various messaging services and other offenses, he participated and "openly aligned himself" with IS, they added.

Planning the attack on the concert, he allegedly tried to get weapons and worked on making a shrapnel bomb "specific to IS attacks" and received instructions from other IS members on handling explosives, according to prosecutors.

He is also alleged to have been involved in other attack plans abroad, including in Dubai and Istanbul though those attacks never materialized.

If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Last year, a Berlin court convicted a Syrian teenager of contributing to the plot to attack the Swift concert.

The 16-year-old was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

The plot was thwarted with the help of US intelligence.

Swift later wrote on social media that "the reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many had planned on coming to those shows".