Woman quizzed over stabbing attack

A YOUNG woman was being questioned following the stabbing of two teenage girls in Waterford city.

A 17-year-old and a 19-year-old were taken to hospital after receiving stab wounds during a suspected public order incident.

A third woman, aged 18, was arrested, and interviewed at Waterford Garda Station.

The incident occurred at 2.15am in John’s Lane, close to a number of nightclubs and late drinking venues in the city.

Investigating officers do not believe the attack is connected with an increasingly violent feud between two extended Traveller families in the city. A Garda spokesman said the scene remained sealed off for a technical examination.

Local Sinn Féin councillor David Cullinane said reports from gardaí suggested there was no link with the Traveller feud.

Mr Cullinane said the city was still in shock from a feud-related ramming incident in the city centre, in which a firearm was tossed into a busy beer garden on the city’s main drinking strip after a car chase.

Witnesses said a car was rammed 10 times on John Street, during which a man ran into the Kazbar pub and threw a firearm into the crowd.

Gardaí arrested four men at the scene and recovered a firearm.

“What’s worrying is the sheer audacity of the attacks,” said Mr Cullinane.

“This incident took place on Saturday evening, in full glare of hundreds of people in the centre of the city.

“This follows the shooting of a 14-year-old lad in broad daylight at 3pm last Thursday and two weeks ago we had a petrol bomb attack in St Herblain housing estate.

“If people are behaving like that in such an open fashion, it shows the contempt they have for everybody. They’re fearless.

“It’s very difficult for the gardaí to deal with,” Mr Cullinane said.

There was speculation at the weekend that Saturday night’s incident was in retaliation for the shooting of 14-year-old Jason Stokes in Ardmore Park in Ballybeg estate last Thursday.

Mr Cullinane said that while the “main protagonists” were two Traveller families there were dozens of relations and people on both sides getting involved.

He said the attacks did put a question mark over efforts at mediation between the two families.

“The gardaí can only do so much. They are making the best use of the resources they have, but I imagine the gardaí are stretched,” said Mr Cullinane.