Thirty-four people have been arrested following Thursday night’s “huge destruction by a riotous mob” in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, local media reported on Friday.
Violent protests and clashes with police erupted after three young children were injured in a stabbing incident outside a primary school.
“These are scenes that we have not seen in decades but what is clear is that people have been radicalized through social media and the internet,” Ireland’s police chief Drew Harris said.
Harris blamed the rioting on a “lunatic, hooligan faction driven by a far-right ideology” as “hateful assumptions” were made based on material circulating online in the wake of the stabbings, including the false claim that the attacker was a foreign national.
A five-year-old schoolgirl and a female teacher remain in very serious condition, according to the police.
Taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar said in a press conference that the rioters “brought shame on Dublin, brought shame on Ireland and brought shame on their families and themselves.”
Legislation for hate crime would also be brought before the Oireachtas, Ireland’s Parliament, in the wake of the riots, he said.
Rioters destroyed police vehicles and damaged shops during the clashes with police, according to media reports. Several police officers were injured during the violence.
