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Hungary's largest music festival on high alert
Organisers of Hungary’s largest music festival, Sziget, have raised the event’s security alert as a precautionary measure following the recently thwarted terrorist attacks at Taylor Swift concerts in the Austrian capital.
As Sziget Festival celebrates three decades of music and culture on Óbuda Island off the coast of Budapest, festival organisers have raised the event’s security alert to ensure the safety of roughly 95,000 daily patrons.
Organisers put the seven-day festival on precautionary high alert following Austrian police thwarting twin terrorist plots targeting Taylor Swift concerts in the country’s capital on Wednesday.
The attacks were allegedly plotted by individuals claiming to be associated with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organisation.
Sziget Festival is monitored by thousands of security staff — including Hungarian police officers in plainclothes, as well as counter-terrorism experts — as well as up to 50 security cameras.
But the 108-hectare island is particularly vulnerable to an attack due to it’s accessibility by boat from Hungary’s capital, security personnel say.
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