Brazilian police have arrested two people in connection with an alleged plot to detonate explosives at a Lady Gaga concert in Rio de Janeiro that drew more than two million people.
The Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro said on social media on Sunday that it had thwarted a bomb attack that had been planned by the suspects for the free concert, held on the famous Copacabana Beach on Saturday.
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The police added that an adult “responsible for the plan” had been arrested along with a teenager in an operation codenamed “Fake Monster” – a reference to “Little Monsters”, the star’s pet name for her fans.
The suspects, it said, had recruited people online to “carry out attacks using improvised explosives” in the aim of “gaining notoriety on social media”. Police working in coordination with the Justice Ministry carried out raids across Rio de Janeiro state as well as in the states of Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, and Mato Grosso.
Felipe Cury, secretary of the Rio Police, said on Sunday that authorities believed the suspects sought to target Brazil’s LGBTQ community as they had “clearly” stated they were planning an attack “motivated by sexual orientation”.
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Rio Police Chief Luiz Lima said the group behind the plot disseminated hate speech and violent content online “in order to attract more viewers, more participants – most of them teenagers, many of them children”.
The show, which Rio City Hall said attracted 2.1 million people, went ahead without disruption even though Brazilian authorities said they had arrested suspects in the hours preceding the event.
A spokesperson for Lady Gaga said in a statement that the star and her team had not been aware of safety concerns “prior to and during the show”, only learning about the threat the next morning.
The statement added: “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.”
Security was tight at Saturday’s concert, with 5,200 military and police officers deployed to the beach where fans revelled in the pop singer’s classic hits like the song Born This Way, which became an LGBTQ anthem after its 2011 release.
The free beach concert stood out at a time of exorbitant ticket prices for live music around the world.
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