ARMED Garda patrols have been deployed to the Limerick village of Castleconnell, where a burst of violence saw a gun attack, arson, and windows smashed in at a home all in one day.
Gardaí are monitoring a number of individuals in the riverside village in an effort to quell rising tensions.
Gardaí confirmed that “a number of shots” were reportedly “fired at a residential property in the Scanlon Park area” around 5.40pm last Saturday (August 9).
“No injuries have been reported, the scene was cordoned off for a technical and forensic examination,” Gardaí said.
It’s understood a number of men wearing balaclavas were involved in the gun attack.
Just a day earlier, at around 1.39am on Friday morning, four masked men armed with hatchets and accelerant set fire to a car and smashed windows at a home at St Patrick’s Villas on Castleconnell.
CCTV footage shared on social media showed that, as one of the males entered the curtilage of the property with a hatchet, two of the perpetrators smashed up a car parked outside the home, while the fourth male set the vehicle on fire.
The men then fled in a black car as the distressed occupants of the house emerged from the property.
A male voice can be heard on the footage asking for someone to “ring the fire brigade, Jesus, quick, ring the guards”.
The masked gang’s getaway car was driven by a fifth man.
Gardaí said they were investigating “a report of an incident of criminal damage” after “a vehicle and a domestic residence” were damaged.
No persons were injured in the violent attack.
Gardaí are investigating if the violent incidents are linked.
The latest attacks come just a week after a masked man set a car alight in broad daylight in the city on August 1, allegedly pausing to record the horrifying scene as he watched the vehicle burn.
Footage of the attack was widely circulated, showing a man spray an SUV-style car with accelerant before fleeing the scene on a motorbike.