Dublin stabbings – latest: Five-year-old girl critical as 32 charged over riots that caused ‘huge destruction’

Gardai made a number of arrests on O’Connell Street in Dublin city centre on Friday night.

Police are mounting a significant security operation in the area following violence which flared in the aftermath of a stabbing attack on Thursday.

A number of people were taken away in police vans following sporadic altercations.

A fundraising effort for the motorbike food delivery driver who hit the knife attacker with his helmet has raised more than £210,000 so far.

The GoFundMe page was set up to “buy Caio Benicio a pint”.

As of 8.30pm on Friday it had raised €246,051, from more than 23,000 donations.

But a page to raise funds for the children and their care assistant attacked had raised only just over half that amount – €129,951 (£112,000) from just over 7,000 donations.

Gardai made a number of arrests in O’Connell Street in Dublin city centre on Friday night.

Police are mounting a significant security operation in the area following violence which flared in the aftermath of a stabbing attack on Thursday.

A number of people were taken away in police vans following sporadic altercations.

Legislation allowing Garda officers to use body-worn cameras is to be fast-tracked, Irish ministers have been told.

As ministers met to discuss the response to the violence, Justice Minister Helen McEntee told the meeting that gardai were trawling 6,000 hours of CCTV footage and further arrests were certain.

She also said the Recordings Devices Bill will be fast-tracked and enacted in the near future, allowing body-worn cameras to come into use for gardai.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told ministers he had spoken with the principal of the Gaelscoil Cholaiste Mhuire school, outside which three children and a woman were stabbed on Thursday, as well the manager of the Children’s Place Nursery and Montessori and representatives of the Dublin business community.

Ireland’s police force has all the resources necessary to keep people in Dublin safe over the weekend, Justice Minister Helen McEntee has vowed.

She also responded to criticism of the violent scenes by insisting she would not resign.

Ms McEntee said: “What happened yesterday evening following this awful, tragic act was nothing but thuggery.

“This was a group of individuals who used this horrendous event as an opportunity to wreak havoc in our city, to sow division in our city, they will be responded to with force and gardai responded in the most appropriate way.

“They have restored order to this city and will continue to do so.”

The minister said she met senior Garda officers on Friday evening.

She added: “They have reassured me that every resource necessary to keep people safe in this city over the weekend is in place and will be in place as is needed and for as long as is needed.”

Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald has called on Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and Ireland’s justice minister Helen McEntee to resign.

“The people of Dublin need to know that those in charge of government and the head of An Garda Síochána are capable of ensuring that it never happens again.”

She added she had spoken to both and went on: “They should resign, both of them... I’m saying that we now need a change.”

The riots that broke out across Dublin city centre on Thursday evening appear to have begun as a heated demonstration at the scene of a tragic incident that took place earlier in the day, Irish police have said.

Three young children and an adult woman and man were all injured in a knife attack outside the Irish-medium primary school Gaelscoil Cholaiste Mhuire on Parnell Square East at approximately 1.30pm on Thursday lunchtime, an incident that immediately made headlines.

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Boris Johnson has suggested that high levels of immigration are to blame for the Dublin riots, as he used the eruption of violence to knock the EU.

In his latest column for the Mail, the former Tory prime minister said people “will not accept demographic change at this kind of pace – even in the most achingly liberal of countries and capital cities”.

Mr Johnson added: “Look at what is happening in Dublin, where that lovely and happy city seems to have been engulfed by race riots.”

He also claimed the electoral victory of far-right candidate Geert Wilders in the Netherlands showed that immigration was too high across Europe.

“The people of Ireland and Holland, in my experience, are among the nicest, kindest, most generous in the world.

“And yet there are plainly large numbers in both countries who are starting to worry that something has gone wrong, and that the EU system of free movement – a border-free Europe for the entire 450million-strong territory – has too many downsides.”

Damage done to public infrastructure in Dublin could cost in the tens of millions of euros, Irish premier Leo Varadkar has said, as he urged shoppers to go into the city centre.

Politicians have strongly criticised the violent scenes in Dublin that saw Garda cars, buses and trams set alight and shops looted and damaged.

David Young reports:

A delivery driver who stopped a man attacking a girl in Dublin has said he is praying for her survival, Lucy Neeson reports.

Caio Benicio was on his motorbike working in Parnell Square East on Thursday when he saw what he first thought was a fight.

Mr Benicio said he saw the man grab a girl, take out a knife and attack her.

He said: “When I saw the knife, I stopped my bike and I just acted by instinct.”

He said he took his helmet off and hit the man in the head with it “with all of my power”.

“I didn’t even know there was more kids that were (hurt) at that time,” he said.

“I thought it was just one girl but afterwards I (found) out there are more people, more kids.”