The failed foil attack on Taylor Swift’s concert is part of a bigger pattern according to experts.
A third teenager has been arrested in connection with the foiled attack on Taylor Swift’s now-cancelled concerts in Vienna, according to the country’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner.
Karner announced Friday that an 18-year-old was taken into custody Thursday evening for allegedly being in contact with the main suspect. The arrest in the Austrian capital was announced during an unrelated news conference.
After apprehending a 19-year-old main suspect and a 17-year-old on Tuesday for their role in the terror plot, officials said they were not searching for any additional suspects. They did not provide further details on Friday.
Authorities believe the plan, which led to three sold-out concerts being cancelled, was inspired by the so-called Islamic State group and al-Qaida.
Investigators discovered bomb-making materials at one of the suspects’ homes, and a suspect has reportedly confessed to planning to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue”.
Rising threat of teenage extremists
However, security experts warn that this incident is far from isolated, highlighting a growing and deeply concerning trend across Europe.
A broader pattern of extremist activity has emerged, signalling a rise of a new generation of young radicals driven by online radicalisation.
According to terrorism expert Peter Neumann, threats have increased all over Western Europe.
“It is part of a larger pattern that has developed very rapidly over the last ten months but which has gone almost unreported,” he said.
“We have had six successful attacks carried out by jihadists in Western Europe, 21 attempted or foiled attacks. So a total of 27 either realised or planned attacks in Western Europe.”
“That’s more than four times as many as in 2022,” he explained.
This surge in activity is closely linked to the rise of online radicalisation, where extremist groups exploit digital platforms such as Telegram to spread their ideology and recruit new followers to their terrorist organisations.
“The various channels tell them that it is their duty not only to be convinced of these things but also to translate them into action, i.e. to attack people, to wage war,” Moussa Al Hassan, founder of DERAD, an NGO dedicated to deradicalisation, said.
“This means that anyone who is radicalised and comes from these different ideological movements is also a potential assassin.”
Experts believe these networks are spreading everywhere in Europe, especially in Western Europe, such as Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
In some cases, networked cells across national borders are formed, such as between Switzerland, Germany and other countries, as well as between Belgium and France.
