One person was killed and two injured Friday after gunmen, apparently disguised as police officers, opened fire with semi-automatic weapons inside a hotel in Dublin that was holding a weigh-in for a boxing tournament.
The incident took place in The Regency Hotel, police said.
A motive has not been established. It is not thought to be terrorism-related and early reports from local media suggest the brazen afternoon attack may be related to a dispute between criminal gangs in Ireland.
Irish state broadcaster RTÉ said approximately 200-300 members of the public were present at the weigh-in ahead of Saturday’s World Boxing Organization European Lightweight title fight between Jamie Kavanagh and Antonio Jao Bento. Kavanagh is a local fighter from Dublin and Jao Bento is from Portugal.
The fight has been cancelled. A weigh-in is when a boxer or jockey is formally weighed before or after contest.
“I was lucky today is all I can say,” Kavanagh tweeted after surviving the incident.
Kevin McAnena, a radio reporter who was at the hotel in north Dublin during the attack, told the broadcaster that he “heard two loud gunshots from outside coming into the hotel.”
“At which point,” McAnena said, “two men, who I thought were (police) officers – turns out they were just dressed up in (police) uniform – came in with guns.”
A tweet from what appears to be a fake Twitter account with no link to Ireland’s state broadcaster said the shooting was linked to Sinn Fein, an Irish political party long associated with the Irish Republican Army that sought a united Ireland. Britain has classified the IRA as a terrorist organization.
Video footage that has emerged from the scene shows the chaos inside the hotel as dozens of people attempted to take cover.
At one point in the footage, the voice of a young child can be heard. “Daddy help me, what was that?”
