A 21-year-old accused of planning an Islamist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in 2024 that was foiled at the 11th hour pleaded guilty as his trial opened on April 28.

The defendant, an Austrian identified as Beran A, was arrested on Aug 7, 2024, the day before the first of three planned concerts by the US pop star in Vienna.

All three dates were then cancelled, to the dismay of fans and of Swift herself, who wrote afterwards that it was “devastating”.

The trial in Wiener Neustadt, near Vienna, is focused on more than that planned attack.

Other attacks were planned

Beran A is also accused, along with Slovak national Arda K, of planning attacks in the Middle East that they did not go through with, and of providing moral support to a third man who has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out a knife attack in Mecca.

“I plead guilty in part,” Beran A said at the start of his questioning by the presiding judge. Asked if he pleaded guilty to the charges relating to the planned concert attack, he said: “Yes.”

Both defendants covered their faces as they entered the courtroom, as is common in German-speaking countries, to avoid being identifiable in photographs. Beran A wore a dark blue shirt and jeans, Arda K a light blue shirt and beige trousers. 

Prosecutors accuse Beran A of using video instructions by the Islamic State on how to make a shrapnel bomb, producing a small amount of the explosive triacetone peroxide and illegally trying to buy weapons, including a machine gun and a hand grenade, for the planned attack.

He has been charged with various terrorism-related offences, as well as belonging to a criminal organisation and making a dangerous threat, and faces 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Defendants plead not guilty in part

Prosecutors also allege the two and the third man, all school friends, had planned to carry out one attack each in the Middle East before the Swift concerts, in March 2024: Beran A in Dubai, Arda K in Istanbul and the third man in Mecca.

While each travelled to his designated city, only the third man is believed to have launched an attack – he was arrested on suspicion of stabbing a security official at Mecca’s Grand Mosque. He is still in custody in Saudi Arabia.

Arda K pleaded guilty to travelling to Istanbul with the intention of carrying out a militant attack, as did Beran A in relation to his trip to Dubai.

They pleaded not guilty, however, to providing moral support to the third man, arguing he was already determined and the driving force behind those plans.

April 28 is the first of four scheduled trial days. The last is May 21, and it is unclear whether more will be needed. (Reuters) 

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The Police Computer Crimes Unit is continuing investigations into a series of bomb threat emails received by several government offices and a Qatar Airways flight, Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Nalinda Jayatissa said.

The threats were sent to the Poojapitiya, Nawalapitiya, and Pasbage Korale Divisional Secretariats, as well as the Kandy District Secretariat.

A similar threat was also received by a Qatar Airways flight on December 28, the minister confirmed.

Emergency response teams, including the Police Special Task Force, Police and Army bomb disposal units, were deployed to investigate all reported locations, he said.

The police are probing whether the threats were intended to incite public fear, Minister Jayatissa said. No explosives were found, and no further developments have been reported as of now, he added. (Newswire)

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Traffic at Paris’ Gare du Nord train station has been halted after an unexploded World War II bomb was discovered on the tracks leading to France’s busiest rail terminal, officials confirmed.

The explosive device was found in the middle of the tracks overnight during routine maintenance work in the suburb of Saint-Denis, according to the French national railway company, SNCF. 

The suburban RER B train service confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that the bomb dated back to the Second World War.

Following the discovery, French authorities quickly halted all train traffic to and from Gare du Nord, including high-speed TGV and Eurostar services. The terminal, which accommodates approximately 700,000 passengers daily, saw major disruptions as police and bomb disposal experts worked to neutralize the threat.

According to Eurostar’s official website, at least three morning departures were canceled as a precaution. Passengers traveling to London, Brussels, and other destinations faced significant delays.

Authorities have yet to confirm the origins of the bomb, though unexploded ordnance from World War II is occasionally unearthed in Europe during construction and maintenance work. (Hindustan Times)

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An unexploded U.S. bomb from World War II that had been buried at a Japanese airport exploded Wednesday, causing a large crater in a taxiway and the cancellation of more than 80 flights, Japanese officials said.

No one was hurt, and there were no aircraft nearby when the bomb exploded at Miyazaki Airport in southwestern Japan, Land and Transport Ministry officials said.

An investigation by the Self-Defense Forces and police confirmed the explosion was caused by a 500-pound U.S. bomb and there was no further danger. Officials were determining what caused its sudden detonation.

A video recorded by a nearby aviation school showed the blast spewing pieces of asphalt into the air like a fountain. Videos broadcast on Japanese television showed a crater in the taxiway reportedly about 7 meters (yards) in diameter and 1 meter (3 feet) deep.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said more than 80 flights had been canceled at the airport as of midafternoon Wednesday.

The airport said the taxiway damage was repaired overnight and flights resumed Thursday morning.

Miyazaki Airport was built in 1943 as a former Imperial Japanese Navy flight training field from which some pilots took off on suicide attack missions.

A number of unexploded bombs dropped by the U.S. military during World War II have been unearthed in the area, Defense Ministry officials said.

Hundreds of tons of unexploded bombs from the war remain buried around Japan and are sometimes dug up at construction sites. (ABC News)

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