A knife attack caused chaos in the Irish capital: vehicles were set on fire

A five-year-old girl and a woman in her 30s were seriously injured in the attack, which occurred at around 1:40 local time.

While the attack occurred outside a school in Parnell Square in the city centre, police said a seriously injured man in his 40s was someone they were focusing on in their investigations.

While the police did not provide information about the suspect’s nationality, sources who spoke to the BBC said that the suspect is an Irish citizen and has lived in the country for 20 years.

Police added that no other people were being sought in connection with the attack.

Drew Harris, head of An Garda Síochána (Irish police), blamed the events following the attack on a “crazy hooligan group acting with far-right ideology” who caused violence as police tried to take control of the scene.

According to BBC Turkish, Irish police reported that the streets were “generally quiet” and that many police officers were on patrol.

He stated that after demonstrators gathered at the scene, riot police deployed in the area.

The protests were concentrated in some streets near the scene of the accident in the city center. Some vehicles, a tram and a bus were set on fire.

While one store was looted, the display windows of other stores were smashed.

While Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar stated that additional police forces had been deployed, he stated that he was shocked by the incident and that “the details are still being determined.”

Drew Harris also called on the public to “act responsibly and not listen to misinformation and rumors circulating on social media.”

“We know what happened, but it’s still unclear why it happened,” Harris said.

At an earlier press conference, Senior Police Officer Liam Geraghty said a five-year-old girl was being treated in hospital, while another six-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy were less seriously injured.

Geraghty said that although police were in the early stages of the investigation, they were confident the incident was not a “terrorism-related act” and appeared to be an “isolated attack.”

An eyewitness told Irish state television RTE that he and another eyewitness took a knife from a man.

Siobhan Kearney described the scene as “total chaos”.

“Without thinking, I crossed the road to help,” Kearney said. “Two children and a woman were transferred to the school they left,” he said.

Kearney stated that the man with the knife was also on the ground and many people were trying to detain the suspect.

Kearney added: “An American woman and I formed a circle around him and said we would wait for the police.”

Eyewitness Kearney also stated that the ambulance arrived within three to four minutes and all other EMTs arrived within five minutes.