Night Riots in Dublin: 34 Arrested, Injured Police, Shops Looted
Massive disturbances erupted in the Irish capital, Dublin, hours after a knife-wielding man attacked pedestrians in the city center. The incident occurred yesterday during the day near a daycare center at Parnell Square East. The assailant injured three children and a caretaker attempting to protect them. Two of the victims, a five-year-old girl and a 30-year-old woman, sustained serious injuries, with the girl still in critical condition. Bystanders apprehended the attacker before the police arrived, during which he also sustained injuries, as reported by the Irish publication The Journal.
A few hours after the incident, an aggressively inclined crowd began gathering in the city center. Due to circulated information identifying the assailant as an Algerian native, the protests took on an anti-immigrant character.
Protesters threw bottles and flares at the police, leading to the ignition of several buses and vehicles. Some demonstrators also targeted closed shops, setting them ablaze and looting them. According to the police, several hundred people participated in the clashes, with 34 individuals arrested. Police officers were also injured, though the exact number is unspecified.
The motives behind the individual's attack on children near the daycare center remain unknown. Initially, the police stated that they did not consider the incident a terrorist act. However, later representatives mentioned that they are exploring the possibility of a deliberate terrorist-style attack. Meanwhile, the police referred to the participants in the disturbances as "a group of aggressive hooligans sympathetic to extreme right-wing ideology."
The Irish government is concerned that violence may escalate tonight, particularly since protests are being organized online. Leo Varadkar, the head of the Irish government, emphasizes that the National Police are acting under the assumption that these events could recur both over the weekend and in the future.
Varadkar also noted that approximately 500 people participated in the disturbances, with 400 police officers successfully regulating the situation on the streets within an hour and a half. According to him, the police managed to contain the situation in a limited area of the northern center of Dublin and bring it under control by midnight.
"Such disturbances have not been observed in our country for decades," remarked the high-ranking official.
Varadkar assured that those involved in violent actions would face the full severity of the law.