After rioting and a stabbing that left three children and a woman injured, in Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland, cleaning up is going on.
According to RTÉ News, a six-year-old girl suffered head injuries and a woman is critically ill, while a five-year-old girl is also in a critical condition. A five-year-old boy was admitted to the hospital, though his injuries were minor.
In the ensuing riots, stores, vehicles, and public transportation were vandalised, injuring police officers, according to authorities.
On Thursday, after 13:40 local time, a knife attack occurred outside Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire, a primary school located in the city centre. According to police, a man in his 40s who also suffered serious injuries is someone of interest. The police continued by saying that they were pursuing a specific line of investigation and were not currently looking for anyone else.
The man suspected of carrying out the attack is an Irish citizen who has been residing in the nation for 20 years, according to sources who spoke with the BBC.
Thursday night, Drew Harris, the chief of An Garda Síochána, the Irish police force, told reporters, “We know what happened, but the motive for this is entirely unclear.”
Following disturbances in the city centre, close to the attack scene, including O’Connell Street, one of Dublin’s main shopping thoroughfares, riot police were called in.
Harris attributed the rioting to a “lunatic, hooligan faction driven by a far-right ideology” that used violence to contain the stabbing scene while police attempted to protect it for further investigation.
“There is disgraceful scenes in terms of a major investigation, the maintenance of a scene, the gathering of evidence,” he stated. In order to put an end to the rioting, he further stated that he was “drafting in resources”.
“We ask people to act responsibly, not to listen to the misinformation and rumour that is circulating on social media. The facts are being established but the facts are still not clear and a lot of the rumour and innuendo is being spread for malevolent purposes.”
According to Ch Supt Patrick McMenamin, “the significant levels of public disorder, criminal damage and violence was carried out by violent individuals in Dublin city centre”. The rioting on Thursday night, he claimed, had nothing to do with the earlier knife attack. He went on, “It was gratuitous thuggery.”
The public did not report any significant injuries, but he said that some police officers had been beaten. Nobody is thought to have suffered serious injuries. More than 400 police officers kept watch over Dublin’s downtown throughout the night as the rioting subsided towards midnight.
