Austrian police arrested three young men, including a 14-year-old, on suspicion of planning an attack on the Pride Parade in Vienna in which hundreds of thousands of people participated, said the head of Austria's intelligence agency, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.

Three young men, aged 14, 17 and 20, who are suspected of being sympathizers of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist organization, were arrested before the parade began, Haijawi-Pirchner said, adding that there was no threat to the participants of the Pride Parade, which was held on Saturday in the centre of Vienna.

“They shared extremist content on the Internet. In this context, the suspects focused on the Pride Parade as a potential target,” the Ministry of the Interior said in a statement.

As part of Saturday's arrests, the authorities found weapons and other evidence of IS sympathizers with three suspected Austrian citizens of Chechen and Bosnian origin.