More than two million people attended a Lady Gaga concert in Rio de Janeiro that allegedly contained a plot to detonate explosives.
The Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro announced on Sunday that it had prevented a bombing attack planned by the suspects for the free concert being held on Saturday at Copacabana Beach.
In an operation known as “Fake Monster,” which is a reference to “Little Monsters,” the star’s favorite name for her fans, the police added that an adult “responsible for the plan” had been detained along with a teenager.
According to the report, the suspects allegedly had arranged online recruiting for “carry out attacks using improvised explosives” with the aim of “gaining notoriety on social media”. In collaboration with the Justice Ministry, police carried out raids throughout Rio de Janeiro, as well as in Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, and Mato Grosso.
Authorities in Brazil’s LGBTQ community, led by Felipe Cury, the group’s secretary, said on Sunday that they believed the suspects were planning an attack “motivated by sexual orientation.”
According to Rio Police Chief Luiz Lima, the group behind the plot distributed hate speech and violent content online “in order to draw more viewers, more participants, most of whom were teenagers and many of them children.”
Even though Brazilian authorities claimed to have arrested suspects in the hours leading up to the event, the show, which Rio City Hall claimed attracted 2.1 million people, continued without incident.
The star and her team were unaware of safety concerns “previous to and during the show,” according to a Lady Gaga spokesperson, who confirmed this in a statement.
Her team collaborated closely with law enforcement throughout the course of the concert’s planning and execution, according to the statement, adding that “everyone was confident in the safety measures in place.”
5,200 military and police officers were stationed at the beach where fans could watch the pop singer’s classic hits like Born This Way, which later became an LGBTQ anthem after its 2011 release, and security at Saturday’s concert.
Source: Aljazeera
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