Police consider attackers focused LGBTQ followers attending American star’s free live performance on Rio’s Copacabana Seashore.
Brazilian police have arrested two folks in reference to an alleged plot to detonate explosives at a Girl Gaga live performance in Rio de Janeiro that drew greater than two million folks.
The Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro stated on social media on Sunday that it had thwarted a bomb assault that had been deliberate by the suspects for the free live performance, held on the well-known Copacabana Seashore on Saturday.
The police added that an grownup “liable for the plan” had been arrested together with an adolescent in an operation codenamed “Faux Monster” – a reference to “Little Monsters”, the star’s pet title for her followers.
The suspects, it stated, had recruited folks on-line to “perform assaults utilizing improvised explosives” within the intention of “gaining notoriety on social media”. Police working in coordination with the Justice Ministry carried out raids throughout Rio de Janeiro state in addition to within the states of Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, and Mato Grosso.
Felipe Cury, secretary of the Rio Police, stated on Sunday that authorities believed the suspects sought to focus on Brazil’s LGBTQ group as that they had “clearly” acknowledged they had been planning an assault “motivated by sexual orientation”.
Rio Police Chief Luiz Lima stated the group behind the plot disseminated hate speech and violent content material on-line “so as to appeal to extra viewers, extra contributors – most of them youngsters, a lot of them kids”.
The present, which Rio Metropolis Corridor stated attracted 2.1 million folks, went forward with out disruption regardless that Brazilian authorities stated that they had arrested suspects within the hours previous the occasion.
A spokesperson for Girl Gaga stated in an announcement that the star and her group had not been conscious of security issues “previous to and in the course of the present”, solely studying concerning the risk the subsequent morning.
The assertion added: “Her group labored carefully with regulation enforcement all through the planning and execution of the live performance and all events had been assured within the security measures in place.”
Safety was tight at Saturday’s live performance, with 5,200 navy and cops deployed to the seaside the place followers revelled within the pop singer’s basic hits just like the track Born This Means, which grew to become an LGBTQ anthem after its 2011 launch.
The free seaside live performance stood out at a time of exorbitant ticket costs for stay music all over the world.
