Dublin [Ireland]: Protesters and rioters clashed with police in Dublin on Thursday evening, following a knife assault earlier in the day that injured five people, including three children, Fox News reported.
According to the Irish news publication RTE, protesters attacked the officers of the state police force, Garda and set afire to a Garda car.
Citing the Irish publication, Fox News reported that the chaos occurred on O’Connell Street and Parnell Square East, where the rioters were said to have hurled pyrotechnics and bottles at cops.
The clashes broke out hours after the knife assault outside a school in central Dublin about 1:30 pm (local time) on Thursday.
A 5-year-old child has been undergoing emergency medical treatment in a hospital. A woman and two children also sustained injuries. A 6-year-old girl had less serious injuries, while a boy was discharged from the hospital, according to officials.
According to Fox News, Irish police said they weren’t treating the case as terror-related, and that a man in his 50s, who was also hospitalized with serious injuries, is a “person of interest.”
The police stated they had a “definite line of inquiry” and were not seeking anybody else involved in the incident outside the school.
“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,” Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said at an evening press conference.
Moreover, the Garda Commissioner also stated that the ongoing clashes in the city are not acceptable as he described 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.
Helen McEntee, Ireland’s Justice Minister, said she was “deeply shocked” by the “appalling attack on three innocent children and a woman,” Fox News reported.
She stated that the city’s instability “will not be tolerated.”
“A thuggish and manipulative element must not be allowed to use an appalling tragedy to wreak havoc,” the minister added.
