NOS News••Amended
In the Irish capital Dublin, a protest at an asylum seeker center last night resulted in a major clash with the police. Some of the demonstrators attacked the police with stones, bottles, fireworks and pitchforks.
They also set fire to a police car and tried to blind the crew of a police helicopter with laser beams. Some tried to break the police cordon on horseback.
These are images of the protest and the deployment of riot police:
The reason for the protest was the arrest of a man who allegedly assaulted a girl near the center. According to the leader of an opposition party in the Irish parliament, he was an asylum seeker who had been subject to a deportation order in March. It is not clear whether that claim is correct.
Estimates of the number of demonstrators range from 500 to 2,000. They carried Irish flags and signs with anti-immigration slogans.
Agents ready
Police said the protest was organized by “hateful and violent groups” who are encouraging people to participate on social media. The police knew about the call and were ready with 300 officers, including a dog unit, a water cannon and a helicopter.
Six people have been arrested for public violence. A policewoman was injured.
Riots last year
Ireland is traditionally an emigration country that is tolerant of asylum seekers. There are no anti-immigration parties in parliament, but protests against asylum seekers and the demonization of asylum seekers on social media have increased in recent years.
Two years ago serious disturbances occurred in Dublin after a man seriously injured a woman and three children with a knife. The perpetrator was an Irish man with an Algerian background.
