DSN report confirmed:

Beran A. made bombs under police surveillance

(Bild: APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER)

The terror suspect from Ternitz, Beran A., made his bombs in full view of the police. The 19-year-old suspected IS supporter had been under surveillance since August 2. He is known to have planned an attack on the Taylor Swift concert series in Vienna together with a 17-year-old.

This was revealed in a report by the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN). It shows that the DSN became aware of the attack plans on August 2 - six days before the first of the three concert dates from August 8 to 10.

Cell phone number and Telegram profile transmitted
"The Intelligence Division received information from partner services that an IS-inspired lone wolf was planning an attack on one of these Taylor Swift concerts. Furthermore, the potential assassin is trying to obtain a firearm, and if this is not successful, the assassin is planning an attack with knives," the initial information obtained from abroad states. The partner service provided the DSN with the 19-year-old's telephone number and Telegram profile. Photographs were also forwarded.

Photographs, telephone number and Telegram profile were forwarded to the DSN.

(Bild: zVg)

Suspects took "test drive" with car
The 19-year-old's cell phone was thus tracked for the first time on August 2 at 5:30 pm. That same evening and the following night, the 17-year-old friend of the main suspect was also captured by the surveillance team at his address in Ternitz (Lower Austria). He is said to have taken a kind of "test drive" with the suspect in his car. In the process, a siren and a flashing blue light were allegedly tested - the 19-year-old wanted to get as close as possible to the Happel Stadium with these utensils in order to kill Taylor Swift fans in front of the stadium, pretending to be a police officer or a plainclothes officer.

Our intelligence services

• The Austrian Armed Forces have two intelligence services: the Abwehramt and the Heeresnachrichtenamt.
• Abwehramt: Basically acts domestically and is responsible for everything concerning military legal assets of the Austrian Armed Forces.
• Army Intelligence Office: Collects information on events and actors abroad.
• DSN: The police state security authority is primarily responsible for combating extremism and terrorism.

Searching for booby traps with robot dogs
After further surveillance - including the discovery that the 19-year-old regularly wore gloves and an FFP2 mask in his house and garden and disposed of suspicious objects in an organic waste garbage can - and extensive investigations, the main suspect was arrested at 7.36 a.m. on August 7. For security reasons, the district in Ternitz, where his parents, who were on vacation abroad at the time, and the 19-year-old were registered, had been cordoned off and evacuated. More than 40 officers, explosives specialists and even robot dogs were involved in the search of the house for any booby traps.

For security reasons, a part of Ternitz was cordoned off and evacuated around the time of the arrest.

(Bild: Seebacher Doris/Krone KREATIV)

(Bild: Monatsrevue/Lenger Thomas)

Explosive mixture in refrigerator
"Objects for making an IED (unconventional explosive and incendiary device, a synonym for a booby trap, note) were found in the kitchen. A glass bottle containing 45 grams of liquid TATP (acetone peroxide, an explosive mixture of everyday chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide, acetone and acid, available in every drugstore) was found in the refrigerator. A rapid test by the Federal Criminal Police Office was positive."

Evidence destroyed by the police
However, the TATP was not seized as evidence, but destroyed, as Werner Tomanek, the 19-year-old's defense lawyer, criticized on Thursday. Referring to a passage in the incident report, according to which the TATP was destroyed "by burning it down in the garden" at the scene of the incident, Tomanek commented: "The fact that evidence is simply destroyed by the police is new."

In contrast, a quarter-liter bottle of acetone that was still a third full, an opened bottle of six percent sulphurous acid that was still completely full and an unopened one-liter bottle of hydrogen peroxide were seized, all of which were discovered under the seat of a corner bench in the kitchen. "It would never have been possible to make a functioning bomb with these," said Tomanek. "We are therefore a long way from the kind of threat scenario that justified canceling the Taylor Swift concerts. Every soccer derby between Rapid and Austria Vienna has a far greater potential for danger."

The police state security authority is primarily responsible for combating extremism and terrorism.

(Bild: APA/AFP/ALEX HALADA)

Several facts
The DSN sees things differently. The second incident report literally states that the 19-year-old acted "with full intent and the intention to kill, injure or endanger a large number of people" with his criminal acts, the manufacture of explosives and the acquisition of weapons such as a machete and knives. He had thus - in addition to the relevant terror provisions in the Criminal Code - also fulfilled the elements of attempted murder within the framework of a terrorist organization (Section 278c StGB), preparation of a crime by means of explosives (Section 175 StGB) and intentional endangerment of the community (Section 176 StGB).