Vehicles were set on fire and shops looted in Dublin after a knife attack that left several people, including three children, injured.
A five-year-old girl and a woman in her 30s were seriously hurt in the attack on Thursday afternoon.
It happened on Parnell Square East in the city center, outside the Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire school.
The police said a man in his 40s who was also seriously injured is a person of interest. They added that they were not looking for any other people at this time and were following a definite line of inquiry.
Sources have indicated that the man suspected of carrying out the attack is an Irish citizen who has lived in the country for 20 years.
The head of An Garda Síochána (Irish police), Drew Harris, blamed the subsequent disorder on a “lunatic, hooligan faction driven by a far-right ideology” who engaged in violence as police tried to maintain the crime scene.
The streets are now “mainly calm,” the Irish police have said, with no serious injuries reported as a result of the violence.
Irish police commissioner Ch. Supt. Patrick McMenamin said more than 400 officers remain on patrol after the disorder, which he blamed on “gratuitous thuggery.”
It is unclear how many arrests have been made, but the Irish Justice Minister said that it was a significant number.
Riot police were deployed after protesters gathered in the area near the scene of the attack. The disorder centred on several streets in the city centre, including O’Connell Street.
A number of vehicles were set on fire, including at least one police car, a tram and a bus. A shop on O’Connell Street was looted while the windows of other stores were smashed.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said extra police resources had been deployed. He added that he had been shocked by the knife attack and said, “The facts in this matter are still emerging.”
In a press conference earlier, Supt. Liam Geraghty said that the five-year-old girl is receiving emergency care in the hospital, while another girl, aged six, and a five-year-old boy were less seriously hurt.
He added that although it is early in the investigation, police are confident that there is “no terror-related activity” and that it would appear to be a “standalone attack.”