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.
The remaining 130 schoolchildren and staff abducted by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria last month have been freed.
They are among more than 300 pupils and 12 staff taken from St Mary’s Catholic boarding school in Niger State on 21 November.
Fifty children managed to escape at the time, the Christian Association of Nigeria previously said, while the government said on 8 December that it had rescued 100 of those abducted.
Belongings and clothes left behind at St Mary’s School after the kidnapping. Pic: Reuters
Now the last of the pupils have been released, a spokesman for President Bola Tinubu said, bringing a close to one of the country’s biggest mass kidnappings in recent years.
“The remaining 130 schoolchildren abducted by terrorists… have now been released,” wrote presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga in a post on X.
“They are expected to arrive in Minna on Monday and rejoin their parents for the Christmas celebration.
“The freedom of the schoolchildren followed a military-intelligence driven operation.”
The abduction has fuelled outrage over worsening insecurity in northern Nigeria, where armed gangs frequently target schools for ransom.
School kidnappings surged after Boko Haram militants abducted 276 girls from Chibok in 2014.
Over a decade later, dozens of the girls taken on that occasion remain missing.
A man suspected of killing 15 people during a shooting in Bondi Beach “conducted firearms training” with his father before the attack on a Jewish event, Australian police have said.
Naveed Akram, 24, and his father, Sajid Akram, allegedly attacked people at a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach on 14 December, killing victims aged 10 to 87 and injuring 40 others.
Fifty-year-old Sajid Akram was killed by police at the scene, while Naveed was injured and treated in hospital. He has since been charged with 59 offences, including a terror charge, and police transferred him to a prison on Monday.
New South Wales Police have released pictures of Naveed Akram and his father holding guns, as they “conducted firearms training in a countryside location, suspected to be NSW” in late October, according to a police fact sheet seen by Sky News.
Suspected gunman Sajid Akram during the alleged firearms training with his son. Pic: NSW Police/NSW Local Court
“The accused and his father are seen throughout the video firing shotguns and moving in a tactical manner,” police said.
‘Homemade bombs’
On the day of the Bondi Beach attack, the pair allegedly threw homemade bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at the crowd of people at the gathering near the beach, but these did not detonate.
An analysis indicates that both were “viable” IEDs, according to the police file.
The suspected gunmen were allegedly armed with pipe bombs. Pic: NSW Police/NSW Local Court
Police said they found an IED in the suspects’ car. Pic: NSW Police/NSW Local Court
The information on the fact sheet was released after a suppression order was lifted by an NSW court.
Police allege the men had stored the explosives – three pipe bombs, one tennis ball bomb and one large IED – in a silver Hyundai vehicle, alongside two single-barrel shotguns, a Beretta rifle and two Islamic State flags.
The Hyundai was parked near the scene of the shooting, with the Islamic State flags allegedly displayed in the front and rear windows.
A homemade Islamic State flag was also found in the car, police said. Pic: NSW Police/NSW Local Court
‘Justification’ video found
A phone belonging to Naveed Akram was also found in the car, on which officers identified several videos, including the alleged firearms training video.
Another video shows Naveed Akram and his father sitting in front of an image of an Islamic State flag, with four long-arm guns with rounds attached seen in the background, police said.
The men “appear to summarise their justification for the Bondi terrorist attack” in the footage, according to the fact sheet.
Police said the men walked on the footbridge from where they allegedly shot at crowds two days later. Pic: NSW Local Court
Their Hyundai was previously seen on CCTV entering the car park at Bondi Beach before Naveed Akram and his father walked around the area at around 10pm on 12 December – two days before the shooting.
Police allege that this is evidence of reconnaissance and planning of a terrorist act.
On the day of the shooting, CCTV showed the men leaving a rental house in the nearby suburb of Campsie at around 3pm before driving to Bondi at around 5pm, police said.
The pair were seen carrying bulky items wrapped in blankets, which officers allege were the rifles and homemade bombs.
In the room they rented throughout December, police said they later discovered a firearm scope, ammunition, a suspected IED, 3D-printed parts for a shotgun speed loader, a rifle, a shotgun, numerous firearms parts, bomb-making equipment and two copies of the Koran.
Police said Naveed Akram’s mother told officers that she believed her husband and son were on a fishing trip when they allegedly launched the attack. She said Naveed had been calling her every day from a public phone at around 10.30am.
New gun laws
Meanwhile, the NSW government announced new draft gun laws on Monday, which the state’s premier, Chris Minns, promised would be the toughest in Australia.
The new restrictions would include making Australian citizenship a condition of qualifying for a firearms licence.
But a law like this would have excluded Sajid Akram, who was an Indian citizen with a permanent resident visa for Australia.
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He also legally owned six rifles and shotguns, which would be limited to a maximum of four guns under the new legal limit for recreational shooters.
This comes as Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday that his government would introduce a new offence of adults trying to influence and radicalise children after already introducing legislation to criminalise hate speech and doxing.
Israel has approved 19 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in a fresh blow to the possibility of a Palestinian state.
The move brings the number of new settlements over the past few years to 69, a new record, according to Israel‘s far-right finance minister Betzalel Smotrich.
Widely considered illegal under international law, the settlements have been criticised for fragmenting the territory of a future Palestinian state by confiscating land and displacing residents.
Ganim pictured in 2005. Pic: Reuters
Under Israel’s current government, figures show, the number of settlements in the West Bank has surged by nearly 50%, rising from 141 in 2022, to 210 with the new approvals, according to Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog.
The government’s latest action retroactively authorises some previously-established outposts or neighbourhoods of existing settlements, and the creation of settlements on land where Palestinians were evacuated.
It also approves Kadim and Ganim, two of the four settlements dismantled in 2005, and which Israelis were previously banned from re-entering as part of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Since Israel repealed the 2005 act in March 2023, there have been multiple attempts to resettle them.
Betzalel Smotrich is among prominent names backing the settlements. Pic: AP
The move comes amid mounting pressure from the US to move ahead with the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, which took effect on 10 October.
Mr Smotrich is one of a number of figures now prominent in Israel’s government who back the settlements.
The West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza are claimed by the Palestinians for their future state, but were captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
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Today over 500,000 Jews are settled in the West Bank, in addition to over 200,000 in contested east Jerusalem.
Settlements can range in size from a single dwelling to a collection of high-rises, and the occupied territories are also host to a number of unauthorised Israeli outposts.
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