Taylor Swift fans try to lift their spirits in Vienna

A small street in Vienna became a place of "healing” for hundreds of fans of US mega-star Taylor Swift after organisers cancelled her shows because the authorities had uncovered a religious extremist attack plot.Hundreds of Swifties gathered at Vienna’s Corneliusgasse – dear to Swift’s fans for its resemblance to her hit Cornelia Street – to chant the pop star’s songs.They wanted to lift up their spirits after missing out on their idol’s concerts, which some of them had been waiting for all year.On Wednesday, Austrian officials announced that they had foiled a suicide attack by a religious extremist who confessed that he had planned to kill "a large number of people” at one of Swift’s concerts this week."I didn’t believe it at first, but when I realised it, I was devastated,” Veronika Doubkova told AFP.The 23-year-old student, who had travelled from the Czech Republic to attend a show, was hanging some of her friendship bracelets onto the branches of a tree located on the street.Doubkova said she felt she "didn’t come here for nothing” after experiencing the "uplifting” vibe and strong sense of "community” among the fans, some of whom were donning sequined dresses and cowboy boots – just like Swift.Dilyara Joldassova, a 23-year-old engineer, and two of her friends had travelled all the way from Kazakhstan for the concert.They learned about the cancellations while strolling through Vienna’s Prater amusement park late on Wednesday."My heart is really broken. Everything went grey,” she told AFP.However, "safety comes first”, she said, adding that she was relieved "everyone is safe” and could gather to feel the "healing atmosphere”.All the events surrounding this week’s three cancelled concerts seem set to go ahead as planned, with police stepping up their presence and reinforcing security measures.Despite the disappointment, all Swifties interviewed by AFP said that they understood the event organisers’ decision."I can’t even imagine what it would have been like if the attack had happened and I’d ended up telling the story of how we’d survived – if, in fact, we had survived,” Bernadett Bordas told AFP in Budapest."I was counting down the days, playing all the concerts over and over again on the Internet,” she said.Hungarian David Banyai had already arrived in Vienna after a six-hour train ride, and was gearing up for the concert – just to find out that it wouldn’t happen."I admit I was a bit scared because I’ve heard of other attacks on concerts by (religious extremists),” he said.He was thinking of the deadly November 2015 attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris and the 2017 fatal bombing in Manchester, England, after a show by pop star Ariana Grande.British police have meanwhile stated that there was nothing to indicate that a planned attack on a Swift concert in Vienna would have any impact on her return next week to Wembley Stadium, London, for her five final shows in Europe.Swift’s record-breaking Eras tour came to Britain in June, with shows in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff, before she visited London for three nights, with the now-prime minister, Keir Starmer, and members of the royal family in the crowd.She will return to Wembley on August 15 for five nights before heading back to North America for her final dates of Eras, which has become the highest grossing concert tour of all time, according to reports."There is nothing to indicate that the matters being investigated by the Austrian authorities will have an impact on upcoming events here in London,” a spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan Police said.London’s Met Police said millions of visitors had a safe and enjoyable experience at high-profile events in London every year, with Bruce Springsteen playing at Wembley in July."The Met works closely with venue security teams and other partners to ensure there are appropriate security and policing plans in place,” the spokesperson said. "As always, we will continue to keep any new information under careful review.”