Dublin: Police in Ireland’s Dublin had hard time controlling violent crowds on Thursday after three children were injured in a knife attack outside a school.
The worst unrest in the country in years broke out after ‘a young girl aged five years has sustained serious injuries’, news agency AFP reported.
The streets are a sight of fire and smoke with charred cars as flames were eating away shops and businesses.
The child is receiving emergency medical care, according to reports.
The knifing incident saw a five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl getting less serious injuries.
Two others—a woman and the suspected attacker of the children—were also taken to the hospital with injuries at about1.30 pm local time.
The violence triggered after the rumours spread about the nationality of the suspected attacker, who is believed to be in his 50s.
Some protesters, carrying signs that read ‘ Irish Lives Matter’, waved Irish flags in a neighbourhood where large number of immigrant community lives.
The news agency AFP quoted a protester a saying ‘Irish people are being attacked by these scum.’
Warning against ‘misinformation’ police chief Drew Harris linked the incident to a ‘complete lunatic faction driven by far-right ideology’.
Far-right groups are campaigning against asylum seekers and refugees with their slogan at rallies that ‘Ireland is full’.
The violence following the knife incident saw these sentiment getting played out in the street.
It is further fueled by the chronic housing crisis in the country with the government finding a deficit of ‘hundreds of thousands of homes’.
‘A thuggish and manipulative element must not be allowed to use an appalling tragedy to wreak havoc,' Justice Minister Helen McEntee was quoted as saying.
Police dismissed terror elements behind Thursday’s incident which was linked to a man armed with knife stabbing people.