A man in his 60s arrested as part of the ongoing criminal investigation into the 2022 explosion in Creeslough, Co Donegal, in which 10 people were killed, has been released without charge.
The man was questioned about alleged offences contrary to the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997.
An Garda Síochána said in a statement on Saturday morning that a file would be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The man’s arrest brought to five the number of people detained for questioning as part of the investigation.
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The suspected gas explosion claimed the lives of people visiting an Applegreen service station, and apartments on the same site, in October 2022.
The investigation is being led by gardaí in the Donegal division, who are being assisted by Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the force’s serious crimes squad.
The Health and Safety Authority and the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities have also been aiding the criminal investigation, which is being led from an incident room at Milford Garda station.
From the start of the investigation, gardaí were focused on the gas system at the buildings on the site. While there is no suggestion the gas system was tampered with, or any actions were undertaken to deliberately damage it, every aspect of how it was run and maintained has been examined.
The 10 people who died in the incident on October 7th, 2022 were aged between five and 59. They were Robert Garwe and his five-year-old daughter Shauna Flanagan-Garwe; Catherine O’Donnell and her 13-year-old son James Monaghan; fashion student Jessica Gallagher; Celtic fan Martin McGill; James O’Flaherty from Sydney; shop worker Martina Martin; carpenter Hugh “Hughie” Kelly; and Leona Harper.
In March of last year, two men were detained in connection with the incident, marking the first arrests in the case.
Two months later, a man and woman (40s) were arrested and questioned in relation to the explosion. Following those arrests and subsequent releases, gardaí said a file would be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The Garda inquiry has been focused on evidence-gathering and putting some of that evidence to persons of interest in the case after they have been detained and questioned under caution.
