critical wound | 

Five-year-old continues to cling to life as ‘credible threats’ made to school stabbing suspect

Girl (5) and care assistant still in serious condition

Today at 06:55

Armed gardaí are patrolling the hospital treating the suspect for Thursday’s stabbing outside a Dublin school.

It is understood there have been “credible threats” against the man’s life as he continues to get medical care for his injuries.

Meanwhile, a five-year-old girl was last night continuing to cling to life at Temple Street Hospital after suffering a critical wound in the incident.

A female care assistant in her 30s was also in a serious condition.

Two other children, a five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl, suffered less serious injuries. The girl remained in hospital on Friday but the boy has been discharged.

Gardaí said a man who sustained serious injuries at the scene was now a person of interest in their investigation.

At this stage, detectives have still not established any link between the suspect and the school he attacked but it is not considered to be a terrorism incident.

Information has come to gardaí that the suspect was “highly agitated” in recent days about an issue that had nothing to do with the school.

The grievance is the suspected motivation for the stabbing attack.

“For a reason only known to himself, this individual seems to have targeted children and their carer in a dispute that has nothing to do with them,” a source said.

The man is not born in Ireland but became a naturalised Irish citizen in 2014. He has been living in homeless accommodation in Dublin’s north inner city.

Shortly after the incident at the school, a group of protesters gathered at the scene.

It was not long before they attempted to break through a garda cordon. Within a few hours, hundreds of people were on the street as the situation gradually grew more violent.

As darkness fell on the capital, chaos ensued, with gardaí suffering assaults, public transport being torched and shops being looted.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris on Friday said it was “disgraceful” that garda inquiries into the knife attack had been disrupted by the riots in Dublin.

He told a press conference: “These [riots] are scenes that we have not seen in decades but what is clear is that people have been radicalised through social media and the internet.

“But I don’t want to lose focus on the terrible event in terms of the dreadful assault on schoolchildren and their teacher. There’s a full investigation ongoing. There’s also a full investigation in respect of the disorder.”

Meanwhile, a hero Deliveroo rider who helped stop the attacker has told how he sprung into action when he saw a child being stabbed.

Father-of-two Caio Benicio described how he used his helmet to hit the man who had attacked three young children and the female creche worker.

Mr Benicio is originally from Rio de Janeiro and arrived in Ireland a year ago.

A GoFundMe established to thank Mr Benicio hit its €200,000 target within hours of being set up on Friday.

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

Mr Benicio told the Irish Independent that he had not been frightened when he intervened on Thursday.

“I didn’t have time to be afraid. I have two kids myself and I didn’t have time to be afraid, I just acted,” he said.

Mr Benicio said he originally thought it was a fight between a man and a woman.

“I was working like a normal day. And I was passing by in Parnell Square. For me, at first, it looked like a fight, a normal fight. I slowed down my motorcycle and it was a man and a woman,” he said.

Mr Benicio then described how he saw a woman fighting for a young girl.

“She was very, very brave. She was fighting for a girl, a little girl.

“I was like, ‘What’s happening here’ and then I saw him with a knife and he grabbed a little girl.”

It was then that Mr Benicio saw the man stab the little girl.

“I stopped my bike and I don’t know, I acted by instinct… I took off my helmet and hit him with the helmet on the head.”