Man shot and another stabbed in gang rift

ONE man was shot in the leg and another stabbed in the back in Co Tipperary yesterday as Limerick’s gang war spilled into the neighbouring county.

The man wounded by a bullet to the side of the head was rushed from a housing estate in Emly to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital where his condition was said to be stable.

Shortly after the incident, which happened at about 5pm, gardaí stopped a car on Tipperary Road, Ballysimon, and arrested five men, all in their 20s. One of those men was taken to hospital where he was treated for stab wounds to the back which medical sources said were not life threatening.

A major rift has occurred within Limerick’s Keane Collopy feuding criminal gang following the accidental death of crime boss, Philip Collopy.

At a house in Emly gang members challenged another gang associate.

Sources said the intended target ‘retaliated first’ and in the ensuing struggle one man was shot and another was stabbed.

Gardaí said last night that a number of people were being questioned at garda stations in Limerick and Tipperary.

It is believed that a Keane Collopy gang member living in Shannon along with other associates set off for Emly to sort out a debt issue with another Keane Collopy gang member living in the Emly area of Co Tipperary on the Limerick border.