Riots in Dublin after stabbing near school – as police car and buses set on fire during ‘far-right’ protests
Police said a “complete hooligan lunatic faction driven by far-right ideology” was behind violent protests in Dublin after three young children were injured in a stabbing outside a primary school.
Rioters let off flares and fireworks at police as one of the children, a five-year-old schoolgirl, and a woman in her 30s, described as a “member of staff caring for her”, are being treated in hospital for serious injuries.
Officers with riot shields held back crowds in the city centre where a police car was set on fire amid anger over the stabbings in Parnell Square East.
A Luas tram and several buses were set on fire on O’Connell Street in the city centre and a bus and car were torched on O’Connell Bridge.
A police car has been set on fire during the disorder
Bus fire in Dublin
Sky News’ Ireland correspondent Stephen Murphy saw people looting a Foot Locker store in the city during the chaos. He also saw people smashing the front of an Asics store with metal bars.
Rioters attempted to kick and punch police and there were ongoing scuffles, with bottles being thrown.
A Garda public order unit was deployed to control the disorder.
Police believe stabbing was ‘standalone attack’
A suspect has been detained in relation to the stabbings and police have said they are not treating the attack as terror-related.
However, the force added they are not “ruling out any motive”.
In a press conference earlier, Superintendent Liam Geraghty told the media the five-year-old girl was receiving “emergency medical treatment” after the stabbings. He also said the stabbing spree appeared to be a “standalone attack”.
A five-year-old boy, a six-year-old girl and a man in his 50s were treated in hospital for less serious injuries, SI Geraghty said. The boy was later discharged from the Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin Hospital.
Protesters faced off with police after the stabbing
People urged to ignore ‘misinformation’ after ‘serious violence’
Following the rioting, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has told journalists outside Mountjoy Garda Station: “I think there’s disgraceful scenes in terms of a major investigation, the maintenance of a scene and the gathering of evidence.
“We have a complete lunatic hooligan faction driven by far-right ideology, and also then this disruptive tendency engaged in serious violence.
“We are drafting in resources to deal with that and that will be dealt with properly. I’ve given full direction to our resources here in respect of making arrests and bringing offenders to justice.
“It’s our responsibility to make sure that we police the streets, and part of that is we ask people to act responsibly and not to listen to the misinformation and rumour that is circulating on social media.
“The facts are being established, but the facts are still not clear on a lot of the rumour and the innuendo is being spread for malevolent purposes.”
Chief Superintendent Patrick McMenamin described the violent protests as “gratuitous thuggery”.
He said 400 officers were involved in the police response to the protests at the height of the operation, and that some officers were assaulted during the incident.
However, he said there were no reports of any serious injuries being suffered by officers and no reports of serious injuries made by members of the public.
Mr McMenamin said Dublin city centre was “now calm” and “returning to normal”, but that police would “continue to monitor” the situation.
The Rotunda Hospital, a maternity facility located near the site of the stabbing, urged people not to travel to the hospital “unless necessary” while the protests were ongoing.
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Dublin: Girl, 5, among those attacked
‘Thuggish and manipulative element’ blamed for riots
In a statement, Irish justice minister Helen McEntee said: “The horrific attack today in Dublin city centre was an appalling crime that has shocked us all.
“An Garda Siochana are following a definite line of inquiry and are not looking for anyone else regarding this crime. The perpetrator will be brought to justice.
“However, the scenes we are witnessing this evening in our city centre cannot and will not be tolerated.
“A thuggish and manipulative element must not be allowed use an appalling tragedy to wreak havoc.”
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Stabbing near school in Dublin
Irish President Michael D Higgins said after the stabbings and rioting: “All of our thoughts are with each of the children and their families affected by today’s horrific attack outside Gaelscoil Coláiste Mhuire in Dublin city centre.
“We are particularly thinking of the five-year-old girl and the member of staff caring for her who are both in serious condition in hospital.
“All of our prayers are with each of them for a full recovery… This appalling incident is a matter for the Gardaí and that it would be used or abused by groups with an agenda that attacks the principle of social inclusion is reprehensible and deserves condemnation by all those who believe in the rule of law and democracy.”
‘Eyewitnesses played a huge role’ in stopping stabbing
Sky’s Murphy said witnesses have told police they saw a man, who was reportedly wielding a knife, “attack several young people” as they left school during the stabbings earlier.
The school is an Irish-speaking primary school where all students would do lessons in Irish.
“It appears that bystanders and eyewitnesses have played a huge role in bringing this incident to a halt,” Murphy said.
“Witnesses have spoken of seeing several bystanders become involved to try and intervene and restrain this man.”
One man, a Deliveroo driver, told Irish media how he hit the alleged attacker with his motorcycle helmet.
“I didn’t even make a decision, it was pure instinct, and it was all over in seconds,” Caio Benicio told The Journal.
“He fell to the ground, and other people stepped in.”
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Mary Lou McDonald, leader of Ireland’s opposition party Sinn Fein and a representative of Dublin Central, told Sky News: “The community is numbed and horrified.
“This is the last thing you expect to happen on a Thursday afternoon in the middle of Dublin city.
“It’s a great school community and people’s hearts are with the children who have been traumatised and those who have been injured.”
In a post on social media website X, Ms McDonald also named the school affected as Gael Cholaiste Mhuire.
World
Israeli president’s denial goes further than official response – but it doesn’t tally with background talks
President Isaac Herzog’s outright denial that Israel was behind the attacks on Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies goes further than the official Israel government response which, so far, has been to say nothing at all.
It’s not unusual for Israel to remain silent after major attacks on its enemies, and guilt is generally assumed by the absence of comment, but Herzog was definitive, saying he “rejects out of hand any connection to this or that source of operation”.
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‘Israel is not interested to be at war with Lebanon’
That does not square with background conversations I’ve had with political and security officials here in recent days.
Follow the latest updates on the Middle East
Admittedly no one has confessed outright, however discussion of the attacks and the potential consequences, are generally framed by a metaphorical nod and wink, and conversations had proceeded along the lines of ‘we all know what happened, even if we’re going to dance around it’.
Nearly 3,000 people were injured and 12 killed by the first round of pager explosions in Lebanon
Herzog might be right to suggest Hezbollah has other enemies, but aside from the US, which has repeatedly denied even knowing about the attacks ahead of time, I can not think of another state that would have the capability, will and purpose to carry out those attacks.
Read more:
How pagers can be modified to remotely explode
Israel’s long history of alleged secret operations
As one serving Western intelligence official remarked to me a few days ago, “None of us would dare do it because of the collateral damage”.
No one, not even Israel, has come up with an alternative culprit.
The timing of the attacks, were it not Israel, are too coincidental.
This came around the same time Israel announced it was entering a new phase in the north and then launched multiple heavy barrages of Lebanon, including a massive air strike in southern Beirut.
At least 44 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon and Gaza in the last 24 hours.
A strike on the Lebanese capital Beirut killed at least 31 people including three children and seven women, the country’s health minister Firas Abiad said.
Fifteen of the 68 wounded in the attack remain in hospital.
Ali Harake, the head of the rescue team searching through the rubble, told Sky News his team is still looking for between 17 and 18 missing people – though he fears none have survived.
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‘I think the missing people are dead’
Follow the latest updates on the Middle East
It is understood two apartment blocks in a densely populated southern neighbourhood collapsed in the strike – the deadliest attack on Beirut in decades.
Top Hezbollah commanders are believed to have been meeting in the basement of one of the buildings.
Hezbollah has confirmed two of its senior commanders, Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi, died in the strike while an Israeli military spokesperson said that at least 16 Hezbollah militants were killed.
Wahbi oversaw the military operations of the Radwan special forces – a commando unit that seeks to infiltrate and carry out attacks in Israel – until early 2024. Aqil was also a top commander for the Iran-backed group.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has described the killing of Aqil as a “crime” and a “folly”, adding Israel will “pay the price”.
Read more: Israeli airstrike on Beirut causes more shock to a country already rocked to its core
Meanwhile, at least 13 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza City, according to a local report.
The strikes are believed to have hit several schools sheltering displaced people in the southern part of the city.
Inside a school, that was sheltering displaced people, after it was hit by an Israeli strike this morning. Pic: Reuters
The street outside the school. Pic: Reuters
The strikes come after Hezbollah launched one of its most intense bombardments of northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, largely targeting Israeli military sites.
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Hezbollah said its latest wave of rocket attacks was a response to past Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.
It came days after mass explosions of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies killed at least 37 people, including two children. Some 2,900 others were wounded in the assault which has been widely attributed to Israel.
World
Fire rips through arms depot deep inside Russia after huge Ukrainian drone attack – as Zelenskyy prepares to meet Trump
A fire has ripped through a Russian missile depot in the Tver region deep inside the country after it was targeted in a Ukrainian drone attack, the defence ministry in Moscow has said.
Footage shows a second Ukrainian drone attack on the southwestern Russian region of Krasnodar also triggered a fire and caused a series of explosions.
Russia’s defence ministry has claimed its forces shot down 101 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and occupied Crimea during the overnight attacks.
The drone strikes were carried out as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskky said he is hoping to meet Donald Trump next week when he travels to the US – where he will present US President Joe Biden with a “victory plan” in relation to the war.
An explosion after the drone strike on the arms depot in Krasnodar
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s foreign minister said Russia appears to be planning strikes on Ukrainian nuclear facilities before the winter.
Posts on local Telegram channels said a Ukrainian drone attack struck an arms depot near the town of Toropets, in Russia’s Tver region – which is about 380 kilometres (240 miles) northwest of Moscow and about 500 kilometres (300 miles) from the Ukrainian border on Saturday.
Russian authorities closed a 100-kilometre (62-mile) stretch of a highway and evacuated passengers from a nearby rail station.
The depot appeared to be just miles from a Russian weapons arsenal storing missiles, bombs and ammunition in Tver that was struck by Ukrainian drones early Wednesday, injuring 13 people and also causing a huge fire.
Flames rise after the strike on the Tver region on Wednesday. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, at least 1,200 people were evacuated from Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar region after an ammunition depot and missile arsenal were struck in the second drone attack overnight, the local governor has said.
Most of those evacuated were staying with friends and relatives, Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Krasnodar region, said on the Telegram messaging app.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in either Tver or Krasnodar.
Ukraine warning of attacks on nuclear sites
It comes as Kyiv is urging the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Ukraine’s allies to establish permanent monitoring missions at the country’s nuclear plants as it warns they could be targeted in Russian attacks.
“In particular, it concerns open distribution devices at (nuclear power plants and) transmission substations, critical for the safe operation of nuclear energy,” foreign minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X.
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A mushroom cloud rises after the drone strike on Toropets in the Tver region. Pic: Reuters
Zelenskyy prepares for US trip
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian leader has said he plans to meet Republican presidential candidate Mr Trump on either Thursday or Friday next week.
During the trip, Mr Zelenskyy will present Mr Biden with a so-called victory plan as he hopes to bring about an end to the conflict.
Volodymr Zelenskyy with Donald Trump in 2020. Pic: Reuters
The Ukrainian president has said the plan will include long-range striking capabilities and other weapons long sought by Kyiv, and will serve as the basis for any future negotiation with Russia.
He is also expected to push Washington to lift restrictions on long-range missile strikes inside Russia.
Mr Zelenskyy will attend sessions of the UN Security Council and General Assembly and also plans to meet vice president Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate in this year’s US election, in separate meetings on 26 September.
The developments come as three sources have told Reuters that Iran did not include mobile launchers with the close-range ballistic missiles that Washington has accused Tehran of delivering to Russia for use against Ukraine.
The sources – a European diplomat, a European intelligence official and a US official – said it was not clear why Iran did not supply launchers with the Fath-360 missiles, raising questions about when and if the weapons will be operational.
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