Man suffers head injury after suspected hatchet attack near Blarney

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One man has been arrested and gardai are searching for another after a man suffered head injuries in a suspected a hatchet attack near Cork city.

The victim, who is in his late 20s, was walking with his partner close to the where they both live at Riverview Estate in Tower, near Blarney, at around 1.35pm yesterday when they were confronted by two male attackers.

Gardai are investigating claims that one of the attackers was armed with either a hatchet, or possibly a machete, while the other was armed with a baseball bat.

The victim suffered a serious head wound before the attackers fled the scene. An ambulance was called and paramedics alerted gardai who were on the scene within minutes. The injured man was taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where he received a number of stitches to his head wound and where he remained overnight for observation.

Gardai arrested a man in his early 20s on the northside of the city later in the afternoon. He was taken to Gurranabraher garda station where he was detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act for questioning.

Meanwhile, gardai in Cork are also investigating an assault in the Mayfield area on Sunday night in which a man was injured. The man, who is not from the area, suffered a gash to the head during an altercation with a number of others in Ballinderry estate at around 8.40pm.