Taylor Swift’s world-dominating The Eras Tour is over in Europe at the moment: Swift played Poland last weekend, and she’s heading to Vienna, Austria’s Ernst Happel Stadion this upcoming weekend. Swift concerts tend to draw quite the crowd, and it turns out that her upcoming shows could have ended in tragedy had Austrian police not stepped up and made some arrests.
NBC News reports that today (August 7), two men were arrested in connection to “alleged planned attacks at major events in Vienna,” which would have included Swift’s concerts. At a news conference today, Vienna State Police Director Franz Ruf and Police Chief Gerhard Purstl said said one of the men, arrested by Austrian federal and state police, was a 19-year-old who had allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS. Both men arrested had apparently “become radicalized through the internet” and had specific plans on how to execute an attack.
A bomb squad allegedly found chemical substances when the 19-year-old was taken into police custody, and investigators are currently determining if the substances could have been used in the creation of a bomb.
According to a police official, “the concrete danger has been minimized” and there are currently no plans to cancel Swift’s concerts.