Tuesday’s raids came a month after authorities foiled a plot to attack Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna which were subsequently cancelled.
Austrian security forces carried out raids against 72 alleged Islamist extremists in the run-up to the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York, citing the potential for copycat violence on the date of the plane hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people.
The raids occurred across the country on Tuesday, before Wednesday’s anniversary, because the 2001 terror attack remains symbolic for extremists and has inspired copycat attempts, the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence said in a statement.
Authorities thwarted an attempted attack on the anniversary last year at Vienna’s central station and the risk remains high on the date around the world, it said.
“Measures have been taken against 72 people. A total of four house searches were carried out, 39 detention room searches, five interviews with suspects, where there was a concrete suspicion, so that the suspects were also interviewed. And 20 so-called threat interviews were also carried out,” explained Interior Minister, Gerhard Karner.
Karner also said that 52 of the 72 people targeted in the raids are already in prison.
“These are also important consistent measures because we simply see, both the judiciary and our investigating authorities, that we know and see again and again that some people ultimately become radicalized in prison,” he said.
Tuesday’s raids came a month after authorities foiled a plot to attack Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna which were subsequently cancelled.
Austrian officials said the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian man, was inspired by the so-called Islamic State group and intended to kill thousands of people.
The 19-year-old had allegedly uploaded to the internet an oath of allegiance to the current leader of the Islamic State group.
Authorities said they also found Islamic State group and al-Qaeda material at the home of a second suspect, who is 17.
Tuesday’s operation also included raids on several prisons in Austria, as well as interrogations of suspects and seizures of digital devices such as cell phones to look for evidence of radical Islamic propaganda.
Franz Ruf, Austria’s director general for public security, appeared to reference the Taylor Swift plot in a statement, saying the last few weeks have shown the importance of cooperation between security agencies to counter extremism.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner also called for stronger powers for investigators to be able to root out such plots.
“The clear signal is that Islamist extremists have no place here and we are taking decisive action against them,” he said.
Currently, Austrian officials often rely on other countries — such as for the Swift concerts where the CIA uncovered the plot — because unlike some foreign intelligence services, Austria can’t legally monitor text messages.
