A teenage terror suspect who planned a bloodbath at a Taylor Swift concert in Austria is believed to have been radicalised by a notorious hate preacher in Berlin.
Beran A., the 19-year-old ISIS fanatic who was building a bomb in his parents’ backyard and planning to gun down concertgoers this week, was influenced online by rabid Berlin hate preacher Abul Baraa, according to German intelligence sources cited by IMAGE.
Baraa (real name Ahmad Armih) is a well-known figure in German security services with 46,000 followers on Instagram and more than 81,000 on TikTok.
Speaking to Bild newspaper, the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the German equivalent of MI5, said: “The closure of its Berlin mosque and the coronavirus pandemic led to increased engagement on social media.”
‘His rhetoric and style of speaking are particularly popular among young people.’
This comes as images emerged of the garden and inconspicuous toilet where Beran A. is said to have been building his suicide bomb while his parents were on holiday in his native North Macedonia.
Taylor Swift was scheduled to perform in front of an estimated 170,000 fans on August 8, 9 and 10 at Vienna’s Ernst-Happel-Stadion, but the shows were cancelled amid fears of a terrorist plot.
The 19-year-old ISIS fanatic has been identified as Beran A., who lived in Ternitz, south of Vienna.
Beran A., the 19-year-old ISIS fanatic, was reportedly building a bomb in his parents’ backyard.
Taylor Swift fans sing together at Stephansplatz on August 8, 2024 in Vienna, Austria
Three nights of Taylor Swift concerts, due to take place here tonight, Friday and Saturday, have been cancelled after Austrian police announced they had foiled a suspected attack at the venue.
The 19-year-old man, who lived in his parents’ home (white house in the photo on the right) together with another man, was arrested on Wednesday after police raided the house, according to Kronen Zeitung.
A few years ago, Beran A.’s parents, who emigrated to Austria from North Macedonia, moved into a newly built house in the Neunkirchen district of Ternitz with him and his younger sister.
Residents of Ternitz told local media that Beran, who was born in Austria and attended a local school, used to be a “harmless boy next door” who was often seen lounging around in jeans and trainers.
But locals say he underwent a dramatic aesthetic and behavioural transformation to coincide with his pledge of allegiance to ISIS last month, adding that he began growing a thick beard.
This feature was clearly visible in a shocking photograph of the potential terrorist posing with huge zombie knives and an ISIS flag revealed yesterday by German media.
The 19-year-old was arrested in Ternitz on Wednesday morning, while a second teenager, aged 17, was detained in the Austrian capital, according to public security director general Franz Ruf.
It later emerged that Beran A. and his accomplice had planned to attack Swift’s concert venue by driving into the crowd outside and attacking them with knives and machetes before detonating a suicide bomb to kill as many fans as possible.
Until two weeks ago, Beran A. worked in the same stainless steel plant in Ternitz as his father.
I was doing an apprenticeship as a retail salesman at the factory, where I had access to the plant’s laboratory, including various chemicals.
This week, during a raid on the family home in Ternitz, bomb disposal experts obtained the chemicals needed to produce the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP), which Beran A. is said to have previously experimented with.
ISIS typically uses TATP in terror attacks and requires acetone and hydrogen peroxide, which authorities confirmed were found in the home.
Ruf confirmed yesterday at a press conference that the suspect’s “preparatory action” at the Ternitz home was focused on the manufacture of explosives.
The head of the State Security and Intelligence Directorate, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, said that Beran A. “is clearly radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State and believes it is right to kill infidels.”
Beran A.’s parents and sister are reportedly currently on holiday in North Macedonia, but police are expected to question the parents about their son upon their return.
Following his arrest, the teenager fully confessed to plans to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue,” Austrian security officials said.
His planned terror attack was to end with him detonating his homemade bomb and killing himself in the process, according to the Austrian newspaper. Today newspaper.
Behind the bright white walls of the family home in Ternitz (white house, second from left), bomb disposal experts obtained chemicals to produce the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP), which Beran A. is said to have already experimented with.
Fans of singer Taylor Swift -swifties- gather in Vienna, Austria, on August 8, 2024, after the star’s concerts were cancelled at the last minute due to a terror threat.
Fans of singer Taylor Swift gather after the cancellation of three Taylor Swift concerts at the Happel Stadium after the government confirmed a planned attack at the venue, in Vienna, Austria, August 8, 2024
Both suspects, who were allegedly radicalised online, took “preparatory actions” for an attack, with the 19-year-old “focused” on Swift’s concert in Vienna at the Ernst Happel stadium (pictured above), director general of public security Franz Ruf confirmed.
General view of the shows outside Happel Stadium, after Taylor Swift’s three concerts were cancelled this week, August 8
Taylor Swift canceled her three concerts in Vienna after two suspects were arrested for allegedly planning a terror attack at her shows – Swift is pictured performing in London in June
Firebrand preacher Baraa, who is said to have been involved in radicalizing terror suspects, once preached at Berlin’s infamous “As-Sahaba Mosque.”
Police raided the mosque in 2018 on suspicion of terrorist financing and subsequently closed it.
The site had been a hub for radical Islamists, including Reda Seyam, a senior German ISIS member, and Denis Cuspert, one of the most notorious ISIS fighters in Germany.
Following the mosque’s closure, Baraa moved his preaching to the Internet, where he continued to spread his extremist ideology.
In his videos, he chillingly refers to ‘kuffar’ (infidels) waging war against Islam, urging his followers to resist this perceived oppression.
“How long will this humiliation last… how far will this war, this terrorism of the kuffar against the Muslims go?” Baraa asks in one of his incendiary sermons.
His influence has grown over the years and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has noted that he has become a “star” on the Islamist scene, despite the multiple investigations against him.
