A planned bombing at a Lady Gaga concert in Brazil on Saturday night was foiled and a suspect is in custody, Brazilian authorities said.
Unidentified people were “virtually recruiting participants to carry out attacks” using improvised explosive devices, the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police said. The perpetrators planned to gain notoriety on social networks through the bombing, authorities said.
The person accused of being responsible for the plan is in custody, and a teenager has been detained in connection with the matter, police said.
Brazil's Ministry of Justice and Public Security alleged in a statement that the plot was organized by a larger extremist network that operates online to radicalize adolescents and provoke hate crimes.
It's unclear when authorities found out about the threat.
The civil police intelligence unit was first alerted to the scheme, and search and seizure warrants were obtained for multiple areas in Brazil, police said.
A spokesperson for Lady Gaga said her team learned about the alleged threat through media reports Sunday morning.
“Prior to and during the show, there were no known safety concerns, nor any communication from the police or authorities to Lady Gaga regarding any potential risks,” the spokesperson said. “Her team worked closely with law enforcement throughout the planning and execution of the concert and all parties were confident in the safety measures in place.”
Lady Gaga singer posted about the show on her Instagram account Sunday, praising the crowd for their vibrancy throughout it.
"I wish I could share this feeling with the whole world—I know I can’t, but I can say this—if you lose your way, you can find your way back if you believe in yourself and work hard," Gaga wrote.
She did not address the alleged bombing threat.
Lady Gaga played at the famed Copacabana venue as part of her new “Mayhem” tour. She announced the show in February on Instagram, saying she was excited to return after having had to cancel her last show in Brazil because of a hip injury during her “Born This Way Ball” tour.
She added that she was “dying to come perform” for her Brazilian “little monsters,” which is the nickname for Lady Gaga fans.
The free concert Saturday was attended by 2.5 million people, according to concert organizers. It is the largest attendance for a female artist, the organizers said, beating Madonna's draw of 1.6 million people at the Copacabana Beach last year.
It falls shy of the Guinness World Record for the largest free concert, which was also at the beach venue. Rod Stewart's performance at the Copacabana in 1994 for New Year's Eve brought in an estimated 3.5 million revelers.
Rio’s security plan included 3,300 military and 1,500 police officers and 400 military firefighters.
The show was supported by the local government in hope of boosting economic activity between big events in Rio, such as Carnival and next month's Saint John’s Day celebrations.
More than 500,000 tourists flocked to the city to see Lady Gaga, Rio’s City Hall said in a statement on Friday.
Taylor Swift was forced to cancel her shows in Vienna because of a security threat less than a year ago.
Austrian authorities said they were alerted to plans to bomb Swift's Eras Tour performances in the city in a terrorism-related attack. Swift opted to cancel the concerts and waited until the end of her European leg of the tour.
“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” Swift said weeks later. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”
Swift had expressed anxiety about keeping people safe during her live performances, citing the 2017 bombing at Ariana Grande's concert in Manchester, England, and the 2017 music festival shooting in Las Vegas.
