A major search was launched after the alarm was raised at around 5.15pm when Gardaí and the Irish Coast Guard received a report of a person in the River Fergus in the Cloughleigh area of Ennis.

One garda was used as a “human shield” from a hatchet-wielding 16-year-old while gardaí were powerless to prevent another man slashing his victim 11 times across the face and back with a Stanley knife in broad daylight.

A 20-year-old man appeared in court yesterday charged in connection with slashing another man on the face with a Stanley knife as part of an ongoing Traveller feud.