Hi °C | Lo °C TOURISTS and shoppers were left shocked when a gang of youths attacked each other in broad daylight with broken bottles on Grafton Street.
Two women and a man were arrested and one man was taken to hospital after being stabbed in the neck just before 6.30pm yesterday on the country's main shopping thoroughfare.
It is understood that the man taken to hospital suffered minor injuries in the incident and indicated to investigating officers that he did not want to make a complaint about the matter.
Sources say that the violent row was "fuelled by alcohol" and that all those involved in it are well known to each other. They are from the south inner city and are also well known to gardai.
Evidence
After the incident, there was a large amount of blood at the scene and a number of gardai descended on the area where they took away evidence bags as part of their investigation.
This is just the latest serious public order offence in Dublin after a summer that has been blighted by city centre assaults and attacks.
Recent figures show that an 11pc fall in offences in which knives were used in the past year, with that trend continuing up to the end of June. Knives were used in eight of the 29 murders recorded in the first six months.
Statistics show there were 3,838 recorded crimes in which knives were used in 2011, down by 11pc on the previous year's total of 4,313.
The last available findings of studies into knife crime showed that one-third of offenders were under the age of 20. Nine out of 10 offenders were male, as were seven out of 10 victims.
kfoy@herald.ie
