Aha Dua Permata: Riots and arson grip Dublin after stabbing spree

Friday 24 November 2023

Riots and arson grip Dublin after stabbing spree - Video

Crowds of rioters have set police and public transport vehicles on fire in the Irish capital, Dublin, amid rumors that a man who stabbed three children and a woman at a city school was a foreign national.

Protesters began to assemble in the center of the city on Thursday afternoon following the knife attack. One of the victims, a five-year-old girl, was hospitalized with serious injuries.

Police arrested a man in his 50s at the scene, and although no description of the man has been released, Irish news site Gript identified him as an Algerian national, citing police sources.

Riot police were deployed to keep the protesters in check, but clashes soon broke out, with multiple officers assaulted, RTE News reported. Fireworks and crowd-control barriers were hurled at police, who attempted to push crowds of angry locals back with riot shields.

Parnell Street right now pic.twitter.com/vfY6lRfscO
— Adrian Weckler (@adrianweckler) November 23, 2023

Several police vehicles were set on fire, with arsonists also targeting at least two double-decker buses and a tram, according to multiple reports.

Groups of hooded rioters also smashed the front window of a building used to house migrants, and charged police lines with flaming dumpsters.

Double decker bus and car on fire, O’Connell Bridge #Dublin pic.twitter.com/CfBkC3UTdM
— Stephen Murphy (@SMurphyTV) November 23, 2023

Police commissioner Drew Harris condemned the “disgraceful scenes,” and described the rioters as “a complete lunatic hooligan faction driven by far right ideology.” Harris said that those responsible for the unrest “will be dealt with properly.”

Luas in Dublin deserted and destroyed as the Irish rise.

This is the direct result of ignoring the concerns of the people! Get the migrants out! pic.twitter.com/KW6Pd0KyL3
— AlphaFo𝕏 (@Alphafox78) November 23, 2023

The stabbing and subsequent riot came a week after Josef Puska, a Romani migrant from Slovakia, was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murder of a woman in the town of Tullamore last January.

The window of Dublin City Dorms, which have been accommodating asylum seekers, was also smashed. pic.twitter.com/kpshsenDLJ
— FJ (@Natsecjeff) November 23, 2023

Ireland’s struggle to house and integrate hundreds of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers has led to increasingly frequent displays of public anger in Dublin, including repeated protests outside an accommodation center for single male migrants last November, and violent clashes at an illegal migrant squat in the city earlier this year, which culminated in locals tearing down the “shanty town.”

Some 141,000 immigrants entered Ireland between April 2022 and April 2023, according to the most recent figures from the Central Statistics Office. Last year, a record 13,651 people sought asylum in Ireland, the majority arriving from Georgia, Somalia, and Syria.

Knife-wielding attacker stabs woman and children in Dublin

Irish police have arrested a man after he allegedly stabbed four people, three of them children under six years old, at a school in Dublin on Thursday. The incident provoked angry protests on the streets of the city, as rumors circulated that the perpetrator was a foreign national.

One adult woman and three children were injured in the rampage, which took place at an Irish-language school in the center of the city. One of the children, a five-year-old girl, was taken to a nearby hospital with serious injuries, while two others – a five-year-old boy and six-year-old girl – were treated for less serious wounds, the Irish Times reported.

The attacker was restrained at the scene by members of the public and arrested shortly afterwards, according to local media reports. He was also taken to a hospital for treatment, and was described by police as an adult male in his 50s.

While police provided no further information about the man or his potential motive, Gript, a right-wing news site, described him as an Algerian national, citing police sources.

As a description of the suspect as Algerian spread on social media, crowds of protesters assembled near the scene, where the demonstration soon devolved into clashes between riot police and hooded rioters. At least one police vehicle was set on fire, and multiple officers were assaulted, RTE News reported.

Police commissioner Drew Harris condemned the vandals as “a complete lunatic hooligan faction driven by far right ideology.”