Woman with knife talked down from balcony

There were dramatic scenes in Cork City last night when gardaí were forced to close a number of streets after a young woman armed with a knife threatened to hurt herself and others as she perched precariously on an apartment block 40ft above a busy road.

Gardaí were alerted by a member of the public after the woman, understood to be British and in her 20s, clambered onto a balcony at the apartment in the Barrack St area at around 7.45pm.

Gardaí rushed to the complex and cordoned off roads, while fire brigade units and ambulances also converged on the scene.

Uniformed gardaí were backed up by armed members of the Garda Regional Support Unit and they called in a trained Garda negotiator to talk the woman down.

It’s believed the incident was sparked after she had an argument with another person.

At around 8.50pm, gardaí managed to get the woman to safety.

According to Supt Barry McPolin, who is in charge of policing the city centre, she was taken to hospital for what he described as “medical assessment”.

Members of the public claimed that the woman was threatening to jump before gardaí successfully intervened.

Supt McPolin did not comment on those claims, but said he was thankful that nobody had been injured during the emergency services’ operation.

The senior Garda acknowledged that it had been a potentially critical incident and thanked members of the force for the positive outcome they had achieved.

He also thanked the public for their patience while the one- hour traffic diversion operation was under way.