The ISIS teen who plotted a terror attack on a Taylor Swift concert has been pictured for the first time as neighbours say he completely changed his look recently. The 19-year-old ISIS fanatic has been identified as Beran A., who lived in a newly-built end-terraced house in Ternitz, nearly 50 miles south of Vienna, where he spent his childhood. A few years ago, Beran A.’s parents – who immigrated to Austria from North Macedonia – moved into a new-built house in the Neunkirchen district of Ternitz with him and his younger sister.

Ternitz residents told local media that he used to be a ‘harmless boy next door’ in jeans and sneakers, who was born in Austria and attended a local school. But Beran A. had changed recently, according to his neighbours, coinciding with his pledge of allegiance to ISIS in early July. He grew a long beard and was often spotted wearing a long-sleeved cotton shirt, with a new picture of him showing him posing with huge zombie knives and an ISIS flag.

The 19-year-old was arrested in Ternitz, south of Vienna, Wednesday morning while a second teen, aged 17, was detained in the Austrian capital in the afternoon, according to director-general for public safety Franz Ruf. Taylor Swift was due to perform in front of an estimated 170,000 fans on August 8, 9, and 10 at Vienna’s Ernst-Happel-Stadion, but the shows were cancelled last night.

Beran A. and his accomplice had planned to attack Swift’s concert venue by driving into the crowd outside at 4pm today before attacking them with knives and machetes and detonating a [homicide] bomb. Resident Mara T. told Austrian outlet Kurier that she had last seen the terror suspect on Tuesday morning, adding: ‘He looked like how you would imagine a sleeper agent for a terrorist cell.’

Another neighbour, Nicole, said the family was ‘inconspicuous and quiet’ and that they didn’t cause any problems. She said that Beran A.’s mother speaks German ‘very well’, but that the father’s language skills were not as good. Nicole said the family even helped her clear away debris thrown against her terraced house during a storm. But not everyone had such a positive experience with the family, as neighbours Mara T. and Dieter S. reveal. They said they got into arguments with Beran A.’s family when loading and unloading their car in front of their neighbour’s house.

Until two weeks ago, Beran A. had worked in the same stainless steel plant in Ternitz as his father. He was doing an apprenticeship as a retail salesman in the factory, where he had access to the plant’s laboratory, including various chemicals. Behind the bright white walls of the family home in Ternitz, bomb disposal experts secured chemicals to produce the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP), which Beran A. – who is said to be the mastermind behind the plot – is said to have already experimented with. TATP is often used by ISIS in terror attacks and requires acetone as well as hydrogen peroxide, which officials confirmed was found in the house.

The head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, said Beran A. was ‘clearly radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State and thinks it is right to kill infidels’. Beran A.’s parents and sister are currently on holiday in North Macedonia, but police is expected to question the parents over their son upon their return. Beran A. has been arrested alongside a 17-year-old. The suspects – who allegedly radicalised themselves online – took ‘concrete preparatory actions’ for an attack – with Beran A. ‘focused’ on Swift’s Vienna concert, Ruf confirmed.

He had quit his job and announced that he ‘still had big plans’ on July 25, Ruf (pictured right) revealed at a press conference today, adding that the teen also ‘significantly changed his appearance’ and that the 17-year-old had recently broken up with his girlfriend. ‘There has been a clear social change,’ Ruf added. Austrian media reported the suspects’ plans included driving a car into groups of Swifties expected to gather outside the venue before attacking with machetes and knives. They had reportedly planned to launch their attack at 4pm today. Beran A. fully confessed to his plans to ‘kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue’, Austrian security officials said.

His planned terror attack was supposed to end with him detonating his homemade bomb and killing himself in the process, according to the Austrian Heute newspaper. Director-general for public safety Ruf confirmed today that ‘explosives were manufactured’ at the suspect’s home after local media reported that Beran A. had stolen chemicals from his former workplace, a metal processing company also in Ternitz, to build a bomb. Beran A. – who was living in his parents’ house along with another man – was arrested on Wednesday after police raided the home, according to Kronen Zeitung. A bomb squad found chemical substances, fluids as well as ‘explosive devices and technical equipment’, Ruf said, after raiding the home and it is believed that the 19-year-old stole these from his workplace.