Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
DUBLIN—Right-wing rioters turned a usually bustling district of central Dublin into a war zone Thursday night, after unconfirmed speculation that a foreign national was responsible for a horrific stabbing outside a school which hospitalized three children under the age of 7 and a woman in her 30s who protected them.
One of the city’s main shopping thoroughfares, O’Connell Street, which should have been packed with late-night Christmas shoppers, became a scene of terror after anti-immigration protesters torched busses and police cars, smashed windows of shops and looted them and allegedly beat non-white people.
Reuters reported that police would not comment on the nationality of the suspect. A man in his late 40s, he was disarmed and detained by passers-by, has also been taken for treatment for serious self-inflicted injuries. The Irish Times reported that the chief suspect was a naturalized Irish citizen, who has lived in Ireland for 20 years.