Brazilian police arrest 2 people over alleged plot targeting Lady Gaga concert in Rio
Entertainment
Event on Saturday was the biggest show of the pop star’s career with estimated 2.5 million fans
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Police in Brazil said on Sunday that two people have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to detonate explosives at a free Lady Gaga concert in Rio de Janeiro.
The Rio event on Saturday was the biggest show of the pop star’s career that attracted an estimated 2.5 million fans to Copacabana Beach and had crowds screaming and dancing along.
Felipe Cury, secretary of the Rio police, said authorities believed the suspects sought to target Brazil’s LGBTQ community.
“They were clearly saying that they were planning an attack at Lady Gaga’s concert motivated by sexual orientation,” Cury told a press conference on Sunday.
Rio Police chief Luiz Lima said the group disseminated hate speech and violent content online “aimed at gaining notoriety in order to attract more viewers, more participants — most of them teenagers, many of them children.”
Even as Brazilian authorities said they arrested suspects in the hours before Lady Gaga’s show, the event went ahead without disruption — leading some to question the seriousness of the threat. Serious security concerns typically lead organizers to cancel such massive events — as happened with Taylor Swift’s concerts in Vienna last year.
