Dundalk stabbing: Police investigating 'terrorism' as line of inquiry after one man killed and two injured

Egyptian teenager arrested on suspicion of murder

Garda at the scene where a man has died and two others were injured after a stabbing attack (David Young/PA Wire/PA Images)

Irish police are investigating a possible “terrorist” incident after a man was fatally stabbed and two others injured in the town of Dundalk.

A Japanese national was killed and an Irish man was also injured in the attack. Another local man had been attacked with a fence pole. Neither of Irish victims sustained serious injuries.

An 18-year-old Egyptian man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and the subsequent assaults.

Gardai have not established a definite motive for the violent spree, but Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan said: "A terror attack is a line of inquiry."

He added: “It is certainly a line that we would look at. We will endeavour to establish the suspect’s background, who they are and where they have come from and why are they here.

“Those are the very important questions we are endeavouring to ask and answer. And as to why the attacks took place, why an innocent bystander going about their work would be attacked in the middle of Dundalk in the morning slightly before 9am.”

Chief Superintendent Mangan declined to confirm whether a potential mental health link was another line of inquiry.

He said the suspect had come into contact with gardai on 1 January when inquiries about his immigration status were conducted.

He added that he believed the teenager was seeking asylum in the Irish Republic. He believed the perpetrator was on foot and the victims were selected at random.

“There is nothing to suggest whatsoever that any of these people involved in the attack and the subsequent assaults were known to each other,” he said. “It would certainly appear to be random and unprovoked.”

He said there was no evidence that anyone assisted the attacker and officers were making efforts to contact the dead man’s relatives.

“It is going to be very, very hard for the family,” he said. “They have someone over here working and the next thing they get attacked and killed in a foreign country.”

He said the investigation would have an international dimension and gardai would be liaising with the authorities in Egypt.

Councillor Ruairi O Murchu, who lives close to the scene of the attack said there was major concern among local people.

“The community is in shock,” said the Sinn Fein representative. “Our thoughts are with the family of the person killed and those that have been injured.”

Additional reporting by agencies