The riots that broke out across Dublin city centre on Thursday evening appear to have begun as a heated demonstration at the scene of a tragic incident that took place earlier in the day, Irish police have said. Three young children and an adult woman and man were all injured in a knife attack outside the Irish-medium primary school Gaelscoil Cholaiste Mhuire on Parnell Square East at approximately 1.30pm on Thursday lunchtime, an incident that immediately made headlines. Two girls hurt in the attack are currently receiving treatment for serious injuries while a five-year-old boy has already been discharged from hospital. Both adults remain in care and are being treated for serious wounds. Eyewitness Siobhan Kearney told the broadcaster RTE: “I looked across the road and I see the man and the stabbing motion with a load of children so I flew across the road. “The man was after stabbing two children as far as I could make out, and we got the children up to the left with the women that were there, and the teachers I presume. “People were trying to attack the man so me and an American lady, we formed a ring around the man, and then about three minutes later the ambulance came for the children and then another ambulance and fire officers came for the man on the ground.” Caio Benicio, a Brazil-born Deliveroo driver, said that he leapt from his moped and knocked the knifeman to the ground with his helmet as part of the public effort to stop him. A police source told The Irish Daily Mail: “We have to say fair play to those people who stepped in. They gave that man a good hiding to make sure he wasn't going to get up and hurt more people, but I can tell you now that they saved lives.” Police have since said they believe the incident itself was a “standalone” attack and is not terror-related. A man in his 50s has been arrested and named a “person of interest” in the investigation and the scene remains cordoned off as of Friday morning. In the immediate aftermath of the stabbings, a spontaneous demonstration formed at the edge of the police cordon over the course of Thursday afternoon and escalated as the evening progressed. A crowd of between 100 and 200 people, some of whom wore scarves and hoodies to cover their faces, confronted gardai verbally before violent clashes erupted with riot police. The mob’s number would ultimately grow to around 500, according to later estimates. Tricolours and an “Irish lives matter” sign were held by some who were present. Fireworks and flares were soon thrown at police and, just before 7pm, a Garda car was seen alight near the scene. Two more police cars sustained fire damage during the episode and another eight were extensively vandalised by the rioters, some of whose actions was captured on mobile phone footage that was swiftly spread across social media. People were seen picking up furniture from nearby shops and smashing it to the ground, some of whom appeared to be minors. Several small pushes were made by riot police down O’Connell Street and away from the scene, which appeared to temporarily scatter those gathered, only for them to reform and confront police again. Some onlookers sheltered in a hotel lobby until the garda effort had moved down towards O’Connell Bridge, where a car and a bus were also set alight. An empty Luas tram that had been left at a stop nearby had its windows smashed and was set on fire. Dublin Fire Brigade tackled the flames that had engulfed the Luas, as well as nearby buses, once they reached the scene. Rioters were also seen on nearby Henry Street, a major shopping thoroughfare, looting a Footlocker shoe store. People threw bottles at gardai on the famous street, while others carried metal bars and smashed shop windows. Smoke from bus and car fires filled the air while a Garda helicopter monitored the situation overhead. As of Friday morning, 32 people have been charged over Thursday night’s violence, which required 400 police officers and a further 250 public order officers to contain, according to the authorities. The affair has been condemned by the Irish justice minister Helen McEntee and the Garda commissioner Drew Harris. Ms McEntee pledged that the scenes of disorder “will not be tolerated” and said: “A thuggish and manipulative element must not be allowed use an appalling tragedy to wreak havoc.” Mr Harris described the clashes with police officers and the criminal damage as “disgraceful” and blamed a “complete lunatic faction driven by far-right ideology” for Thursday’s chaos. He also urged the public to “act responsibly and not to listen to the misinformation and rumour that is circulating on social media”. Also condemning the participants was Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who said on Friday: “Those involved brought shame on Dublin, brought shame on Ireland and brought shame on their families and themselves. These criminals did not do what they did because they love Ireland. “They did not do what they did because they wanted to protect Irish people. They did not do it out of any sense of patriotism, however warped. They did so because they’re filled with hate, they love violence, they love chaos and they love causing pain to others.” Local residents have meanwhile been advised to work from home on Friday as the investigation into the disorder and a major cleanup operation continues. Read More Hamas to release more hostages as thousands set for Gaza ceasefire march NHS doctor says family’s situation in Gaza has worsened despite ceasefire Labour set to further water down £28bn green plans – reports Tech firm Palantir rejects concerns over role in NHS data platform plans Police appeal over ‘wanted man’ who killed motorcyclist in 2016 crash Autistic boy obsessed with John Lewis Christmas ad thanks retailer for gifts

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It is over and everything is lost. This is the refrain repeated by Armenian families as they take that final step across the border out of their home of Nagorno Karabakh. In just a handful of days more than 100,000 people, almost the entire Armenian population of the breakaway enclave, has fled fearing ethnic persecution at the hands of Azerbaijani forces. The world barely registered it. But this astonishing exodus has vanished a self-declared state that thousands have died fighting for and ended a decades-old chapter of history. Today, along that dusty mountain road to neighbouring Armenia, a few remaining people limp to safety after enduring days in transit. Among them is the Tsovinar family who appear bundled in a hatchback littered with bullet holes, with seven relatives crushed in the back. Hasratyan, 48, the mother, crumbles into tears as she tries to make sense of her last 48 hours. The thought she cannot banish is that from this moment forward, she will never again be able to visit the grave of her brother killed in a previous bout of fighting. “He is buried in our village which is now controlled by Azerbaijan. We can never go back,” the mother-of-three says, as her teenage girls sob quietly beside her. “We have lost our home, and our homeland.” “It is an erasing of a people. The world kept silent and handed us over”. She is interrupted by several ambulances racing in the opposite direction towards Nagorno Karabakh’s main city of Stepanakert, or Khankendi, as it is known by the Azerbaijani forces that now control the streets. Their job is to fetch the few remaining Karabakh Armenians who want to leave and have yet to make it out. “Those left are the poorest who have no cars, the disabled and elderly who can’t move easily,” a first responder calls at us through the window. “Then we’re told that’s it.” As the world focused on the United Nations General Assembly, the war in Ukraine and, in the UK, the felling of an iconic Sycamore tree, a decades old war has reignited here unnoticed. It ultimately heralded the end of Nagorno Karabakh, a breakaway Armenian region, that is internationally recognised as being part of Azerbaijan but for several decades has enjoyed de facto independence. It has triggered the largest movement of people in the South Caucasus since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijan has vehemently denied instigating ethnic cleansing and has promised to protect Armenians as it works to re-integrate the enclave. But in the border town of Goris, surrounded by the chaotic arrival of hundreds of refugees, Armenia’s infrastructure minister says Yerevan was now struggling to work out what to do with tens of thousands of displaced and desperate people. “Simply put this is a modern ethnic cleansing that has been permitted through the guilty silence of the world,” minister Gnel Sanosyan tells the Independent, as four new busses of fleeing families arrive behind him. “This is a global shame, a shame for the world. We need the international community to step up and step up now.” The divisions in this part of the world have their roots in centuries-old conflict but the latest iterations of bitter bloodshed erupted during the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh Armenians, who are in the majority in the enclave, demanded the right to autonomy over the 4,400 square kilometre rolling mountainous region that has its own history and dialect. In the early 1990s they won a bloody war that uprooted Azerbaijanis, building a de facto state that wasn’t internationally unrecognised. That is until in 2020. Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, launched a military offensive and took back swathes of territory in a six-week conflict that killed thousands of soldiers and civilians. Russia, which originally supported Armenia but in recent years has grown into a colder ally, brokered a fragile truce and deployed peacekeepers. But Moscow failed to stop Baku in December, enforcing a 10-month blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh, strangling food, fuel, electricity and water supplies. Then, the international community stood by as Azerbaijan launched a 24-hour military blitz that proved too much for Armenian separatist forces. Outgunned, outnumbered and weakened by the blockade, they agreed to lay down their weapons. For thirty years the Karabakh authorities had survived pressure from international powerhouses to give up statehood or at least downgrade their aspirations for Nagorno-Karabakh. For thirty years peace plans brokered by countries across the world were tabled and shelved. And then in a week all hope vanished and the self-declared government agreed to dissolve. Fearing further shelling and then violent reprisals, as news broke several Karabakh officials including former ministers and separatist commanders, had been arrested by Azerbaijani Security forces, people flooded over the border. At the political level there are discussions about “reintegration” and “peace” but with so few left in Narargno-Karabakh any process would now be futile. And so now, sleeping in tents on the floors of hotels, restaurants and sometimes the streets of border towns, shellshocked families, with a handful of belongings, are trying to piece their lives together. Among them is Vardan Tadevosyan, Nagorno Karabakh’s minister of health until the government was effectively dissolved on Thursday. He spent the night camping on the floor of a hotel, and carries only the clothes he is wearing. Exhausted he says he had “no idea what the future brings”. “For 25 years I have built a rehabilitation centre for people with physical disabilities I had to leave it all behind. You don’t know how many people are calling me for support,” he says as his phone ringed incessantly in the background throughout the interview. “We all left everything behind. I am very depressed,” he repeats, swallowing the sentence with a sigh. Next to him Artemis, 58 a kindergarten coordinator who has spent 30 years in Steparankert, says the real problems were going to start in the coming weeks when the refugees outstay their temporary accommodation. “The Azerbaijanis said they want to integrate Nagorno Karabakh but how do you blockade a people for 10 months and then launch a military operation and then ask them to integrate?” She asks, as she prepares for a new leg of the journey to the Armenian capital where she hopes to find shelter. “The blockade was part of the ethnic cleansing. This is the only way to get people to flee the land they love.” “There is no humanity left in the world.” Back in the central square of Goris, where families pick through piles of donated clothes and blankets and aid organisations hand out food, the loudest question is: what next? Armenian officials are busy registering families and sending them to shelters in different corners of the country. But there are unanswered queries about long-term accommodation, work and schooling. “I can’t really think about it, it hurts too much,” says Hasratyan’s eldest daughter Lilet, 16, trembling in the sunlight as the family starts the registration process. “All I can say to the world is please speak about this and think about us. “We are humans, people made of blood, like you and we need your help. “ Read More More than 70% of Nagorno-Karabakh's population flees as separatist government says it will dissolve ‘Centuries of history lost’: Armenians describe journey to safety after fall of Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh: Tearful 16-year-old describes ‘bombing’ while she was in school Why this week's mass exodus from embattled Nagorno-Karabakh reflects decades of animosity

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