London moving ahead with Taylor Swift concerts despite cancellation in Austria
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that the city was looking forward to welcoming Taylor Swift back to Wembley arena for five concert dates next week despite the cancellation of her concerts in Austria.
Khan said the capital and the police had learned lessons from the Manchester Arena attack — a suicide bombing that killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in northwest England in 2017.
“We have a huge amount of experience in policing these events, we’re never complacent, many lessons were learned after the awful Manchester Arena attack,’’ Khan told Sky News.
“The police work closely, not just with City Hall, but with councils, but also with those who host concerts, like the Taylor Swift concert coming up over the next couple of weeks.″
Both suspects in a foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift shows in Vienna appeared to be inspired by the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, Austrian authorities said Thursday, and investigators found bomb-making materials at one of their homes.
Officials said one of the two confessed to planning to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue.”
Three sold-out concerts were canceled a day earlier because of the plot, devastating Swifties from across the globe. Many of them had dropped thousands of euros (dollars) on travel and lodging in Austria’s expensive capital city to attend the Eras Tour shows at the Ernst Happel Stadium, which sat empty Thursday morning as media filmed outside.
Concert organizers said they stood behind their decision, saying they expected up to 65,000 fans inside the stadium at each concert and as many as 30,000 onlookers outside, where authorities said the suspects planned to strike.
Officials told reporters that the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian, began working on his attack plans in July, and just a few weeks ago uploaded to the internet an oath of allegiance to the current leader of the Islamic State group.
He planned to use knives or homemade explosives.
AP
