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Man arrested after bomb threat shuts down SXSW concert

Crowds at the SXSW festival.
Under threat … crowds at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Photograph: Jack Plunkett/AP

A man has been arrested on suspicion of emailing a bomb threat to the Fair Market concert venue in Austin, Texas, during the South by Southwest festival, according to reports.

Trevor Weldon Ingram, 26, was charged with making a terroristic threat, an offence which carries a jail term of up to 10 years. Police were called to the venue on the afternoon of 17 March after the emailed threat was made, but found nothing suspicious.

The threat led to the cancellation of an SXSW festival concert featuring hip-hop artists the Roots, Ludacris and Rapsody. Questlove, the drummer with the Roots, wrote on Twitter that “no one is Mr ‘show must go on’ than me. But we can’t risk our lives if we are told there was a bomb threat.”

The events come at a tense time for Austin, where, separately, there have been a series of letter bomb attacks, over which no arrests have been made, in recent weeks. Late on Sunday night, an explosion, possibly triggered by a tripwire, injured two people, which brings the total recent bomb attacks to four. Draylen Mason, aged 17, was killed on 12 March after a bomb exploded at his home, seriously injuring his mother. A separate package explosion hours after Mason was killed left a 75-year-old woman in a critical condition. On 2 March, a similar attack killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House, also at his home.

All three victims were non-white. Austin police chief Brian Manley said “we are not saying that we believe terrorism or hate are in play, but we absolutely have to consider that”.