Protesters and rioters clashed with police officers and a police vehicle was set ablaze in Dublin, Ireland, Thursday evening after a knife attack that injured five, including three children.
According to Irish media outlet RTÉ, rioters attacked gardaí, officers of the state police force Garda, and set a garda vehicle on fire.
The bedlam unfolded on O’Connell Street and Parnell Square East, according to the outlet. Rioters were reported to have thrown fireworks and bottles at the officers.
Authorities said more than 400 officers, including many in riot gear, were deployed to contain the unrest, which they blamed on “a small group of thugs.”
A police cordon was established around the Irish Parliament building, Leinster House, and officers from the Mounted Support Unit were on nearby Grafton Street. Rioters set off flares and fireworks, while others grabbed chairs and stools outside bars and restaurants.
Police vehicles and a tram were damaged amid the chaos. A bus and car were also set on fire on the city’s O’Connell Bridge. Shop windows were smashed and a Foot Locker store was looted. All public transport in the city — trams and buses — was suspended.
The riots came hours after a knife attack outside a school in the heart of Dublin around 1:30 p.m. A 5-year-old girl was receiving emergency medical treatment in a hospital. A woman and two other children were also injured. A 6-year-old girl sustained less serious injuries, and a boy was discharged from a hospital, officials said.
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Irish police said they weren’t treating the case as terror-related, adding that a man in his 50s, who was also hospitalized with serious injuries, is a “person of interest.” No further details about the man’s identity were released by authorities.
Police said they have a “definite line of inquiry” and that they weren’t looking for anyone else in connection with the violence outside the school.
“The facts are being established, but the facts are still not clear, and a lot of the rumor and innuendo is being spread for malevolent purposes,” Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said at an evening press conference.
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Harris derided the public disorder in the city as “disgraceful.”
“I wish people would calm down, go home and allow us to actually conduct our duties and investigations properly,” he said.
Superintendent Liam Geraghty said at a media briefing that preliminary indications are that a man attacked a number of people on Parnell Square East.
He said police believe it was “a standalone incident, not necessarily connected to any wider issues that are ongoing in the country or in the city, and we need to identify the exact reasons for that happening.”
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He confirmed earlier witness reports that a knife was used in the attack, but he couldn’t provide more details on the nature of the injuries. He also confirmed that witnesses sought to disarm the man as soon as they saw what was going on.
“My understanding is members of the public did intervene at a very, very early stage, and we would applaud those members of the public for getting involved in such a traumatic and potentially dangerous situation for themselves,” Geraghty said.
Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee said that she was “deeply shocked” by the “appalling attack on three innocent children and a woman.”
She said unrest in the city “will not be tolerated.”
“A thuggish and manipulative element must not be allowed to use an appalling tragedy to wreak havoc,” she said.
“We will not tolerate a small number using an appalling incident to spread division. I would appeal for calm in the city center as Garda Síochána carry out their work. Attacks on members of An Garda Síochána must be utterly condemned and will be dealt with severely.”
