[ad_1] Violent riots have erupted in Dublin after unconfirmed reports that a foreign national was responsible for a random stabbing attack on three
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Violent riots have erupted in Dublin after unconfirmed reports that a foreign national was responsible for a random stabbing attack on three children on Thursday that left a five-year-old girl fighting for life.
Protesters torched multiple vehicles, looted stores and clashed with police near the site of the attack on Thursday night. Footage also appeared to show a hotel, which according to unconfirmed reports was housing migrants, being set ablaze by protesters.
Police chief Drew Harris condemned the “disgraceful scenes” — which he blamed on a “hooligan faction driven by far-right ideology” — and warned against spreading “misinformation”.
Irish MMA star Conor McGregor, who has voiced anti-immigration sentiments in recent days, said the police chief’s response was “not good enough”.
“There is grave danger among us in Ireland that should never be here in the first place, and there has been zero action done to support the public in any way, shape or form with this frightening fact,” he wrote on X.
Large crowds chanting “get them out” and “shame on you” descended on Parnell Square in the heart of the Irish capital, video showed, after claims spread on social media that the suspect was an Algerian national.
“I’m not in a position to confirm the specific details of any of the individuals involved in this incident,” Superintendent Liam Geraghty with the Garda Siochana police said at an earlier media conference, when asked if the man was an Irish national.
Irish media and eyewitnesses reported that a man armed with a knife had stabbed the victims outside the primary school shortly after 1.30pm (12.30am AEDT).
The five-year-old girl was rushed to hospital in a critical condition and four other people — a five-year-old boy, a six-year-old girl, a female adult victim and the suspected attacker — were also taken to hospital.
Police declared a major incident and threw up a cordon around the area but said they did not suspect a terror motive.
Witnesses told how a man had been disarmed and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said a suspect had been arrested.
Garda Siochana said in a statement it was “following a definite line of inquiry” and “not looking for any other person at this time”.
“Five casualties have been taken to various hospitals in the Dublin region,” the statement said.
“The casualties include an adult male, an adult female and three young children.”
Mr Geraghty later told media that “a young girl aged five years has sustained serious injuries and is currently receiving emergency medical treatment”.
The five-year-old boy and six-year-old girl sustained less serious wounds and the boy has since been discharged, he added.
The woman was being treated for serious injuries in hospital, while the man, said to be aged in his 50s, was a “person of interest” for police, revealed Mr Geraghty.
The police officer said that “from my understanding a knife was used in the attack”.
“I’m very strongly satisfied from our inquiries that there is no terror-related activity or related to any wider aspects in relation to this matter,” he said. “It would appear to be a stand-alone attack and we need to determine the reasons behind that.”
Mr Geraghty said police were “aware the public are very concerned about the actions that happened today”.
“The message to them is we believe this is a stand-alone incident, not necessarily connected to any wider issues that are going on in the country or the city and we need to identify the exact reasons for that happening,” he told reporters.
“So we’d ask people not to jump to conclusions and not to make rash judgments about the attack. We need to understand the purpose behind the attack.”
Witness Siobhan Kearney said the scene was “absolutely bedlam” as she initially watched events unfold from the other side of the street.
“Without thinking, I just took across the road to help out,” she told Irish national broadcaster RTE.
“We got another young man, disarmed him [the attacker] with the knife, another man took the knife and put it away for the [police] to find it.”
Ms Kearney added a group of people restrained the suspect on the ground, as some of those injured were taken back inside the school.
Mr Geraghty praised the members of the public who intervened.
“The first emergency services, ambulance were there within minutes followed very quickly by Gardai,” he said.
“My understanding is members of the public did intervene in the very early stages and we would applaud members of the public getting involved in such a traumatic and dangerous situation for themselves.”
Prime Minister Varadkar said he was shocked by the incident.
“The emergency services responded very quickly and were on site within minutes,” he said in a statement.
“I thank them for that. Gardai have detained a suspect and are following a definite line of inquiry.”
Local politician Aodhan O Riordain, of the Irish Labour Party, said the incident was “disturbing”.
“Understand an individual has been detained,” he wrote on X. “Hope injuries are not serious but it will extremely traumatising regardless for all involved.”
Mary Lou McDonald, leader of the Sinn Fein opposition party, said she was “horrified” by what had happened.
“There is shock throughout the community,” she said in a statement.
“I have just spoken to the Principal of Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire and relayed my support to the school community. I want to send my solidarity to the families of those attacked. As a parent, I can only imagine what they are going through right now.”
Concerns about immigration and crime have fuelled growing public unrest in Ireland.
Last week, a Slovak national was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal stabbing murder of 23-year-old primary school teacher Ashling Murphy in January 2022.
Jozef Puska, 33, who had been living in Ireland for 10 years, murdered the young woman in broad daylight as she was jogging along a canal near Tullamore in a case that sent shockwaves through the country.
In an emotional victim impact statement, her devastated boyfriend Ryan Casey said it “just sickens me to the core that someone can come to this country, be fully supported in terms of social housing, social welfare, and free medical care for over 10 years … [and] never hold down a legitimate job, and never once contribute to society in any way shape or form”.
“I feel like this country is no longer the country that Ashling and I grew up in and has officially lost its innocence when a crime of this magnitude can be perpetrated in broad daylight,” he said.
“This country needs to wake up. This time things have got to change. We have to once and for all start putting the safety of not only Irish people but everybody in this country who works hard, pays taxes, raises families and overall contributes to society first.”
McGregor had earlier weighed into the debate with a series of furious public statements about Ms Murphy’s killing.
“We need a brand new task force founded in Ireland with the sole objective of assessing and monitoring all entrants that come into Ireland, and we need a clean sweep of those already here under false pretences or that have broke the law here,” he wrote on X this week.
“Our country is at stake and we will tolerate nothing less. Free travel around Europe is NOT WORTH IT to carry on with this current system. It is a failed system! Announce this and correct it NOW! Correct this or you are all finished. The straw has broke the camels back. Your clock is ticking.”
In another post he wrote, “Ireland, we are at war.”
In June, a Syrian asylum seeker went on a stabbing rampage at a playground in the French Alps, with harrowing video showing the man repeatedly stabbing a toddler in a pram in front of its mother.
In October, a Chechen man killed a teacher and severely wounded three other adults at a school in northeastern France in an attack denounced by President Emmanuel Macron as an act of “Islamist terror”.
— with AFP
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