Charity event saved children from park shooting terror

HUNDREDS of children escaped the terror of a triple shooting yesterday morning because a charity event curtailed their usual weekly football gathering at their local park.

Three men in their 20s who were drinking at playing fields in Corduff Park in west Dublin were shot at close range by two masked men who walked calmly across an open green to reach them and escaped on foot into a nearby housing estate.

Two of the victims managed to make their way to a house close by to raise the alarm despite their injuries, but a third was shot in the head and collapsed on the spot. He was critically ill in hospital last night, while the condition of his companions was described as serious.