According to the CIA, the Swift concert conspirators planned to kill “a huge number” of people

According to the CIA, the suspects in the foiled attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna wanted to kill “a large number” of people at the event.

The information the agency provided to Austrian authorities enabled them to thwart the plot and save “hundreds of lives,” CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said on Wednesday.

Mr Cohen stressed that “tens of thousands of people were at that concert, I'm sure many Americans.” He added that the suspects' plans were “advanced.”

Three male teenagers were suspected of being arrested in connection with the foiled attacks, which were allegedly inspired by the terrorist militia “Islamic State”.

Speaking at an annual intelligence summit outside Washington, DC, Cohen said the day of the arrests was a “good day for Langley,” referring to CIA headquarters, “and not just for the Swifties in the office.”

“The Austrians were able to make these arrests because the agency and our intelligence partners provided them with information about the plans of this ISIS-affiliated group,” Cohen said.

He did not disclose how his agency learned of the plot.

Around 200,000 people were expected to attend one of Swift's three concerts in Vienna, which were part of her European tour “Eras”, which took her across several continents.

On August 7, one day before the first show, concert promoters announced that the shows would be canceled after government officials warned of a “planned terrorist attack.”

Austrian authorities had previously arrested two of the suspects on the same day. The third was arrested two days later.

Authorities said the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian citizen, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and targeted the Eras tour.

He hoped to “kill as many people as possible,” authorities said.

Last week, Swift made her first public comment on the planned attack, writing on Instagram that the cancellation of the Vienna shows was “devastating.”

“The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear and enormous guilt because so many people had planned to come to these shows,” she wrote. “But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them we were mourning concerts and not live performances.”

Swift performed eight concerts at Wembley this summer, beating the record for a solo singer previously set by Michael Jackson in 1988.

Their next show on The Eras Tour is scheduled for October 18th in Miami, Florida.