Authorities accused two people of planning attacks on Swift’s Vienna shows, prompting their cancellation. Swift said she waited until the end of her Eras Tour European leg to speak out.
Taylor Swift issued her first statement on the cancellation of three of her shows in Vienna after authorities foiled a suspected planned attack on the venue, speaking of newfound fears as she continues her worldwide Eras Tour and explaining her muted public reaction until now.
“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” the singer-songwriter wrote on Instagram. “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 also expressed her gratitude to authorities: “Thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”
Swift was expected to draw more than 150,000 people for three consecutive nights of her show at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium this month. Austrian authorities arrested two people — a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old — and accused them of planning attacks on large-scale gatherings, including Swift’s shows, in Austria’s capital.
Authorities said that the 19-year-old, whom they consider the main suspect, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and that they found explosive devices during a search of his house.
Swift said she waited until the European leg of her tour concluded before speaking about the Vienna cancellations.
“I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London,” she wrote, referring to her shows at Wembley Stadium, which were scheduled to follow the Vienna concerts.
“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she added. “In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to.”
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The suspects’ plan was to attack people listening to the concert outside the stadium, an Austrian security official told The Washington Post this month, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
In interviews with law enforcement, the suspect said “he wanted to carry out the attack using explosives and cutting and stabbing weapons,” said Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, the head of Austria’s Directorate for Security and Intelligence, adding that his aim was “to kill himself and a large crowd at the concert.”
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