Rio’s civil police force said that “together with the ministry of justice” it had “prevented a bomb attack that would have occurred at Lady Gaga’s concert in Copacabana” on Saturday night.
Officials said the superstar’s huge free gig on the beach, her first concert in Brazil since 2012, drew up to two million people.
Writing on X, Rio police said it had arrested an adult who was “responsible for the plot” as well as a teenager in the operation codenamed “Fake Monster”, a reference to the US pop diva’s pet name for her fans, “Little Monsters.”
It said those involved had recruited people online to “carry out attacks using improvised explosives” and Molotov cocktails as “a collective challenge with the aim of “gaining notoriety on social media.”
The police added that the group behind the plot “spread hate speech,” radicalized youths, and used self-harm on digital platforms as mechanisms to develop social belonging.
Police carried out raids across Rio de Janeiro state as well as in the states of Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, and Mato Grosso.
Lady Gaga’s concert was the second million-strong show on Copacabana beach in a year after a huge concert last year by Madonna.
