Crowd chanting anti-immigrant slogans clashes with police hours after stabbing incident outside school
Rory Carroll, Ireland correspondent
Thu 23 Nov 2023 21.31
Violent protests have flared in Dublin after a stabbing attack outside a school left three children injured.
A crowd chanting anti-immigrant slogans set a police car on fire and attacked several officers on Thursday night hours after a man stabbed a woman and three young children, leaving one in a critical condition.
Police detained a man in his 50s, who was also being treated for injuries, and said they were not seeking other suspects.
Authorities did not identify the man but anti-immigrant groups said he was a foreigner and gathered near the scene of the attack in Parnell Square, in the north of Ireland’s capital.
Sections of the crowd clashed with police, reportedly injuring several officers. Authorities suspended bus and tram services in parts of Dublin and called for calm.
The stabbing incident happened at about 1.30pm on Thursday outside Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire, a school at Parnell Square East, a bustling part of Dublin.
Police said a five-year-old girl, a woman in her 30s and a man in his 50s sustained serious injuries. The girl was receiving emergency medical treatment. A five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl were treated for less severe injuries. The boy was discharged from hospital.
Supt Liam Geraghty told a press conference at Mountjoy garda station, which set up an incident room, that a man in his 50s who was detained was a “person of interest” and police were not looking for anyone else at this time. Geraghty appealed to anyone with information about the incident, including mobile phone footage of the attack and its aftermath, to come forward.
He praised the bystanders who intervened in what he said was a traumatic and dangerous incident.
The garda commissioner, Drew Harris, said it was too early to ascribe a motive. “An individual has been arrested, we’re not seeking anyone else in respect of this incident itself at this moment in time but the investigation will obviously unfold,” he said.
Riot police stands guard near the scene of the suspected stabbing, 23 November 2023.
Violent scenes broke out near the site of the attack on Thursday night as crowds of protesters gathered. A police car and a tram were set on fire and some protesters were involved in scuffles with gardaí, while others threw bottles at officers.
A helicopter hovered overhead as police in riot gear used shields and batons to clear a crowd down O’Connell Street, Dublin’s main thoroughfare. At the other end, by O’Connell Bridge, flames rose from the remains of a bus and a car.
People smashed store windows and set off fireworks, turning the night air acrid. Loud bangs echoed across the city. When asked why they were there, members of the crowd threatened journalists and claimed the media were not telling the truth about immigration.
Harris called for “calm heads” and warned against misinformation as he condemned the “disgraceful scenes” in Dublin. He said a “complete lunatic faction driven by far-right ideology” was behind the disorder and a number of garda vehicles had been damaged.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
The Irish justice minister, Helen McEntee, said: “The horrific attack today in Dublin city centre was an appalling crime that has shocked us all. 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 to use an appalling tragedy to wreak havoc.”
Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire is an Irish-medium primary school with 172 pupils based in a four-storey Georgian building on Parnell Square, a busy thoroughfare in Dublin’s north inner city.
The attack reportedly happened as pupils emerged from the school. Bystanders disarmed a man and pinned him to the ground, with several kicking him, one witness, Siobhan Kearney, told RTÉ. “People were trying to attack the man. So me and an American lady formed a ring around him saying we’d wait on the garda.”
Another man safeguarded a knife for police to retrieve, Kearney said. “Two children and the woman were taken back into the school where they were coming from. It was absolutely bedlam.”
Ambulances and other emergency services arrived within minutes. Streets were sealed off and the area was declared a crime scene.
Leo Varadkar expressed shock. The taoiseach said in a statement: “A number of people have been injured, some of them children. Our thoughts and our prayers go out to them and their families.”
Following the attack, local residents of the area arrived en masse and a riot ensued. They are sick of the unspoken take over of Ireland by mass immigration at their expense. The political class are already labeling them as 'far right'. Whatever the truth behind this combined incident, the government here has finally got a 'far-right' mob to frighten the country with (seeing as no 'far-right' actually exists in the country other than increasingly disgruntled indigenous 'lower-class' who are being marginalized and pushed out of their city by the policy of free for all, as long as you are not Irish). Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Unsurprisingly the UK media has picked up on these issues:
Violent protests in Dublin after woman and children injured in knife attack
Hundreds of people took to the streets of the French city of Lyon on Monday night in a call to bring justice to Thomas, a 16-year-old teenager murdered by a gang of youths on November 19 in the town of Crépol, reports BFMTV .
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — The Las Vegas Police Department is investigating reports of an active shooting incident at UNLV, that killed 3 people according to NBC News.
An additional victim is in stable condition. Four other victims were being treated for panic attacks, and two officers also had minor injuries.
Reports began coming in at around noon, police said, and the shooter has been found and is dead. A law enforcement source told CNN the suspect is a 67-year-old career college professor whose connection to UNLV is unknown at this time.
According to reports from The Associated Press, the shooter was a professor who previously worked at East Carolina University in North Carolina and unsuccessfully sought a job at UNLV.
A reunification center has been established for those looking for a loved one who was on campus during the shooting.
The Family Reunification Center is located at the Convention Center, North Hall 1 & 2.
Family members and loved ones can also call 702-455-AIDE (2433) or facofsouthernnevada.org for more information.
University police said they responded to shots fired in the BEH building. Additional shots were later reported in the Student Union.
Las Vegas police later confirmed that they were responding to the school, where there appeared to be multiple victims. Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a statement they were aware of three victims as of about 2 p.m. Their conditions are unknown, and that number could change.
A representative with Sunrise Hospital later confirmed that their trauma center had received three patients from the incident but did not release their conditions.
"This puts a gloom on the campus," a student told KSNV at the scene. "Now, we have to try to fight back from this and it's just sad."
He went on to say he and others sheltered in place and barricaded themselves in a room.
"We were told the shooter was in the Student Union section -- that's literally one building over from us, so we were nervous."
He said he looked out a window and saw students running outside with their hands up. He said everyone was scared.
Other students shared similar emotions.
"We were in the student union on the second floor and we heard there was an active shooter," one student told CNN, adding that she and others evacuated the building.
"We could hear the gunshots," another student told the media outlet.
Las Vegas police are currently evaluating all campus buildings.
The Nevada System of Higher Education says its institutions in Clark County are closed for the rest of Wednesday. This includes: UNLV, CSN, Nevada State University and Desert Research Institute.
School at UNLV is canceled for the rest of the week. No resume date has been available.
Additionally, the Clark County School District says that all district-sponsored athletic events scheduled for Wednesday have been canceled.
"I want to assure the public that there is no immediate danger now," he said after the gunfire at the university’s Philosophical Faculty ended.
Police say the shooter has been killed, but likely there are still bystanders holed up in buildings:
- SHOOTING IN PRAGUE LEFT 11 PEOPLE DEAD,CTK CITES RESCUE SERVICE
- SHOOTING IN PRAGUE LEFT NINE PEOPLE SERIOUSLY WOUNDED, CTK SAYS
An email sent to staff and students at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, seen by Reuters, had said a shooter was in one of its buildings and had told staff to "stay put".
"Don't go anywhere, if you're in the offices, lock them and place furniture in front of the door, turn off the lights," the email said. One X user posted a photo of a group of students, hiding crouched on a ledge of the building.
Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan told Czech public television the person who opened fire was dead.
Rakusan said there’s no other shooter at the scene and there’s no imminent further danger, but he urged people to cooperate with police.
18:16 today
At a press conference on the shooting in downtown Prague, Police President Martin Vondrášek described minute by minute how the police acted in the case of the shooter.
12:20 - Police have received information that a man has disappeared in the village of Hostouň [~10 km West of Prague] in the Kladno region and has confessed that he wants to take his own life. He has left for Prague.
12:45 - Police receive information that a man has been found dead in the same village. It has been established that he is the father of the young man mentioned above. "We quickly found out that he is a student of the Faculty of Philosophy and he was supposed to give a lecture at 2 pm in a building in Celetná Street in Prague. We moved to this building," Vondrášek described.
14:22 - Police have completed the evacuation of the building, the man has not been found and the search for him is ongoing.
14:59 - Police received the first information about the shooting in the building of the Faculty of Philosophy on Palach Square. Police units were on the scene within minutes, and the intervention unit within 12 minutes.
15:20 - Information was received from the intervention unit that the lifeless body of the shooter was on the gallery of the building on Palach Square. The man had been shot. Police are investigating whether he shot himself or was hit by one of the shooting officers. The intervention in the building of the Faculty of Philosophy is still ongoing.
Twenty-four-year-old David Kozak shot at least 15 people and wounded at least 24 others, according to Vondrasek.
Several units of police officers, some of them equipped with submachine guns, intervened in Kladno on Thursday. According to Novosti, all indications are that the action is related to the massacre at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prague, where a gunman attacked in the afternoon.
According to a Novinek reporter, police officers are seen at one of the family houses in the village of Hostouň in the Kladno region.
Among the police officers intervening are bomb squad and other specialists.
17:05
Police on Thursday afternoon launched a manhunt for 24-year-old David Kozak [later replaces by D.K.], who was linked to a case of violent death in a village in the Kladno region. It subsequently emerged that the wanted man was the gunman who killed 14 people and wounded at least 24 others at Prague's Faculty of Philosophy later in the afternoon. The student is dead. According to information published by the police in connection with the search, the missing person was to be armed. ...
The student graduated with a bachelor's degree in history-European studies and then went on to complete a master's degree in history. He focused on the history of Poland.
18:48
The student who opened fire at a university in central Prague on Thursday finally killed himself on the building's gallery when police officers approached him. However, according to initial information, they also hit him during the intervention. Only an autopsy will determine the exact cause of death.
The information about the probable suicide was confirmed by Police President Martin Vondrášek at a press conference.
According to him, the very end of the intervention was accompanied by a shootout between the suspect and the intervening police officers.
"The officers also used weapons, but from the injuries we have been able to see so far, it appears that he took his own life. Whether this was also linked to the shooting by the police officers cannot be proven at this time, only the autopsy ordered will determine that," the police chief said. ... police have not yet officially confirmed the young man's identity because he suffered devastating injuries. This could have been the result of a situation where he turned a gun on himself at close range. The circumstances of his death are under further investigation.
He also added that none of the police officers or other emergency services were injured in the crackdown on the gunman.
20:33
Thursday's massacre at Prague's Faculty of Philosophy may be linked to the murder in the Klánovice forest [~10 km East of Prague]. Police President Martin Vondrášek said that the police are investigating this version.
"We are working very seriously with the version, which at this moment is very real, that the attacker from the Faculty of Philosophy is also responsible for the two victims at the end of last week in Klánovický les," Vondrášek said at a press conference on Thursday evening.
A thirty-two-year-old man and his only two-month-old daughter were shot dead in the Klánovický les (Klánovice Forest) on Friday, 15 December. Police have so far unsuccessfully searched for the perpetrator.
He said officers were led to it by observations and evidence seized at the crime scene in the village of Hostouň in the Kladno region, where the body of the father of the shooter was found on Thursday. "Until this attack, we did not know the identity of the assailant, and from the information I have, we could not have known," Vondrášek stressed.
"Personally, I am convinced that Prague police officers have carried out a huge number of actions over the course of this week and that it has not been in anyone's power to identify the suspect until today," Vondrášek said, adding that no one is known to have the potential attacker from Klánovice in custody.
"At this moment I am convinced that these were completely randomly selected victims by a person without any criminal history," he added. [including his father?]
The attacker had multiple weapons registered. Police will now investigate whether any of them were used in the shooting in the Klánovice forest.
21:05
There was a huge arsenal of weapons and ammunition in the building of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, Police President Martin Vondrášek told a press conference on Thursday. Had it not been for the quick intervention of the police, the number of victims would have been many times higher, he said. ...
According to the latest tally, the killer shot 14 people at the college and wounded 25 others, 10 of them seriously, the police chief said. He also apparently killed his father in Hostoun, near Kladno.
Vondracek said police are investigating whether the young man was also behind the shooting in Prague's Klánovice. Police are led to believe that evidence seized at the house in Hostouni u Prahy was found.
The five people wounded include four students and one school administrator, officials said. The school’s principal, Dan Marburger, was among the injured, according to officials in another school district where Marburger was an alumnus.
The attack was one of at least four mass shootings that have unfolded in the United States in 2024, according to the Gun Violence Archive. And it marks the second US shooting on school property in 2024, according to a CNN analysis.
The shooter, who was a student at the high school, was Dylan Butler, according to Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Department of Public Safety Division of Criminal Investigation. A law enforcement official told CNN the shooter is dead.
Officers responded to the shooting within minutes and found several people at the high school suffering gunshot wounds, and then found the gunman with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mortvedt said during a Thursday news conference.
An improvised explosive device was also found during a search of the school and it was rendered safe by authorities.
The gunman was armed with a pump-action shotgun and a small caliber handgun, and had also made a number of social media posts around the time of the shooting, said Mortvedt, who did not offer more details on the contents of those posts.
LIVE UPDATES: Shooting at high school in Perry, Iowa
Evidence suggests the shooter acted alone and authorities do not believe there are any additional threats.
“It all happened in the Perry High School, and it was before school started so there were not many students, and it’s our understanding that there was a breakfast program going on so there may have been students of different grades … in the school at that time,” Mortvedt said.
The attack erupted on the first scheduled day of classes of the new semester, according to the district. It followed a year in which more than 80 school shootings – more than in any year since CNN began keeping track in 2008 – were recorded, and came as Republican presidential candidates crisscross the state, vying for voters’ support ahead of the Iowa caucuses this month.
Though authorities have yet to identify the sixth-grader who was killed, Perry resident Jessica Conrad told CNN the child was “the sweetest boy, the one you want your kids to be friends with.”
The principal, Marburger, was identified as one of the wounded in a statement from the Easton Valley Community School district in eastern Iowa, where Marburger graduated. The district said it learned of his injury through “family connections we have in our area.”
Marburger has worked at schools in Perry for at least 25 years, according to the Perry Community School District’s directory.
Authorities responded within 7 minutes to a 7:37 a.m. call of an active shooter at the campus, Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante had said earlier Thursday. “There was very few students and faculty in the building,” he said, noting classes had not yet begun.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed their agents had responded to the high school, as did the Iowa State Patrol, Sgt. Alex Dinkla told CNN, and police vehicles from multiple cities. The FBI said it was assisting the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, which is the lead investigative agency in the case.
“The law enforcement response was swift and immediate,” Mortvedt said during Thursday’s news conference. “Roughly 150 officers from local, state and federal agencies responded within the hour.”
Perry is about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines and has a population of about 8,000, according to the US Census Bureau. The Perry Community School District — comprised of the high school, a middle school and an elementary school — serves about 1,800 students, its website says.