Vienna, 8 August 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Taylor Swift's three performances in Vienna have been cancelled, organizers said late on Wednesday, after two suspects were arrested for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks.

The decision to scrap the US pop icon's shows this coming Thursday, Friday and Saturday was announced by Barracuda Music in a message on Instagram.

"With confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone's safety," Barracuda Music wrote.

Hours earlier Austrian law enforcement announced that two individuals had been taken into custody on suspicion they were planning attacks in the Vienna area, including on Swift's shows.

Franz Ruf, director general for public security at the Austrian Interior Ministry, said chemical substances were seized from a 19-year-old Austrian.

The police, concerned about possible explosives, had pre-emptively evacuated houses and part of a nursing home.

The young man had become radicalized on the internet and reportedly pledged allegiance to the leadership of the terrorist organization Islamic State a few weeks ago, said Ruf.

Ruf said that police had "established" that the 19-year-old had focused his attention on the Swift shows.

According to police, he was arrested Wednesday morning in the town of Ternitz, 75 kilometres south-west of Vienna.

A second person was arrested in the afternoon in Vienna.

The police provided no further details, including the relationship between the two or whether they were searching for accomplices.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer called the cancellation of the concerts a "bitter dissapointment" for fans, though he added that "the situation surrounding the apparent planned terror attack in Vienna was very serious."

"Thanks to the intensive cooperation between our police and the newly established DSN [Directorate of State Security and Intelligence] with foreign services, the threat was recognized early on, combated, and a tragedy was prevented," Nehammer said on social media platform X.

"We live in a time when violent methods are used to attack our Western way of life," Nehammer said.

"Islamist terrorism threatens the security and freedom of many Western countries. That is why we will not give up our values of freedom and democracy but will defend them even more vehemently."

Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler wrote on X: "Terrorists want to scare us and drive us apart. We will not allow our way of life to be destroyed."

Some 65,000 people were expected to attend each of the three concerts at the sold-out Ernst Happel Stadium, as well as around 20,000 fans who would have travelled to the arena without tickets to listen to their idol's music from afar, said Vienna Provincial Police Chief Gerhard Pürstl.

"The findings of the investigation give cause for increased police surveillance," he said a few hours before the concerts were ultimately cancelled by the organizer.

The police could not on their own cancel Swift's shows, he had said in response to a question from a journalist.

But Pürstl said that special anti-terrorist forces, including plainclothes officers and those with special training and service dogs, would be able to secure the concerts. They had also planned surveillance of the airspace.