Snipers patrolled the stadium roof during Coldplay‘s concert in Vienna amid heightened security after police foiled a possible terror attack on Taylor Swift‘s shows in the Austrian capital.
Chris Martin and his band took to the stage at the Ernst Happel Stadium on Wednesday night in the first concert to take place at the venue since the Eras tour shows were cancelled.
Pictures of a police marksman emerged online, with Vienna cops reassuring the public: ‘Our job is to comprehensively secure the concert, including the positioning on the roof.’
‘Don’t worry about the police and enjoy the concert instead!’ the police force added.
Coldplay played Swift’s 2008 hit Love Story during their set, with frontman Martin paying tribute to ‘the beauty and the togetherness and the kindness of all the Taylor Swift fans.’
Pictures of a police marksman emerged online, with Vienna cops reassuring the public: ‘Our job is to comprehensively secure the concert, including the positioning on the roof’
Armed Austrian police officers patrol outside the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, Austria on August 21, 2024
Coldplay frontman Martin paid tribute to ‘the beauty and the togetherness and the kindness of all the Taylor Swift fans’
Taylor Swift cancelled all three concerts in Vienna after two suspects were arrested for allegedly plotting a terror attack on her shows – Swift is pictured performing in London in June
Swift had been due to perform in front of an estimated 170,000 fans on August 8, 9, and 10, and the cancellation of the shows left many Swifties devastated.
The 34-year-old pop star was reportedly left ‘devastated’ after being forced to cancel the Austrian leg of her tour, and vowed to return to Vienna ‘as soon as possible‘.
‘Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating’, she wrote in an Instagram post on Wednesday night.
‘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.
‘But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.’
The American singer said the delay in her releasing her statement was to protect the safety of her fans.
She continued: ‘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.
Fans queue outside the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, Austria on August 21, 2024, prior to the first of a series of concerts of British rock band Coldplay
Fans of Taylor Swift react as they sing together in front of St. Stephen’s Cathedral following the cancellation of three Taylor Swift concerts at Ernst Happel stadium because of a planned attack at the venue, in Vienna, Austria August 9, 2024
‘In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to.’
Swift was also said to have been ‘horrified’ by the thought of a terror attack taking place at one of her shows, as one did in 2017 at popstar Ariana Grande’s gig in Manchester.
Austrian authorities have since arrested three teenage suspects aged 17, 18 and 19.
The 19-year-old suspect was later named as Beran A, an ISIS fanatic who was building a bomb in his parents’ back garden as he planned to mow down concertgoers.
He was radicalised by a notorious hate-preacher in Berlin, according to German intelligence sources.
Austria’s chancellor Karl Nehammer said on X following news of the initial arrests: ‘Thanks to the intensive cooperation of our police and the newly established DSN (Directorate for Security and Intelligence) with foreign services, the threat was identified early on, combated, and a tragedy was prevented.’
