- Five-year-old girl undergoing surgery at Temple St Hospital after stabbing incident
- Injured man, 40s is person of interest in garda investigation
- Creche worker, 30s, also seriously injured in hospital
- Boy, 5, and girl, 6, also taken to hospital with with minor injuries
A five-year-old girl and a woman in her 30s are in a serious condition in hospital after they were attacked and stabbed near a school in Dublin city on Thursday afternoon.
The incident took place outside Gaelscoil Cólaiste Mhuire on Parnell Square East after 1.30pm.
The five-year-old girl is currently undergoing treatment at CHI Temple Street.
Two other young children – a boy, 5, and a girl, 6, – were also hospitalised with minor injuries. The boy has since been discharged.
The injured woman, a creche worker, is being treated for serious injuries at the Mater Hospital.
An adult male in his 40s is also being treated for serious injuries at a Hospital in the Dublin Region.
At a press conference this evening, gardaí confirmed that the man in his 40s is a “person of interest” and that they are not looking for anyone else in relation to the incident.
It’s understood that, shortly after the incident began, the assailant was restrained at the scene by passersby. It’s believed to have occurred while children were leaving the school, which is a primary school just to the north of O’Connell Street.
Gardaí say they are in contact with the parents of all three injured children. Education Minister Norma Foley has also said that counselling services will be offered to the school community.
A motive for the attack has not yet been established but gardaí believe it is a standalone incident, not connected to any wider issues in Dublin or elsewhere in the country.
In a statement, gardaí said they were following a “definite line of inquiry” and appealed for any witnesses, or anyone with information, to contact them.
Anyone with information has been asked to contact Mountjoy Garda Station 01 6668600 the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
One witness, Siobhan Kearney, described what she saw as “absolutely bedlam”.
Ms Kearney told she watched people disarm a man who she said had a knife.
“I looked across the road and I see the man and the stabbing motion with a load of children so I flew across the road.
“The man was after stabbing two children as far as I could make out, and we got the children up to the left with the women that were there, and the teachers I presume,” she told the broadcaster.
Ms Kearney said that the woman and two of the children who had been attacked were then helped back to the school.
“It was absolutely bedlam,” she said. “It was horrendous. The poor children, the screams out of them.”
Ms Carney said an ambulance arrived at the scene within three or four minutes and units of the fire brigade and several squad cars arrived quickly thereafter.
She said she was “very much shaken up” by what happened. “It’s not a thing that you like to see in your own city.”
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