Seven people have been arrested by gardaí investigating the deaths of a Limerick couple shot dead at a house in the city.
Postmortems on the bodies of Des Kelly (23) and Breda Waters (28) are currently underway at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.
Gardaí have confirmed that their inquiry has been upgraded to a double murder investigation.
It’s understood both victims were shot in the head but the weapon used in the double murder has not yet been recovered.
Gardaí arrested seven people at various addresses in Limerick during lunchtime as part of the investigation involving up to 100 officers.
The four men and three women aged in their 20s and 50s are being held at various garda stations across the city under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act.
Gardaí are still appealing for witnesses to the killings which took place yesterday morning at Castle Oaks View, O’Malley Park, Limerick.
The body of Mr Kelly was discovered beside a back door in the kitchen of the terraced house while the body of Ms Waters was discovered lying on a bed in an upstairs bedroom. Both victims had been shot in the head.
Mr Kelly, a father of three, lived at the house and his two-month-old baby girl and sister were in the house at the time of the shootings.
Ms Waters, who was also the mother of three children, was from St Munchin’s Street, St Mary’s Park and is from a large family of 17 children. It’s understood the couple had begun seeing each other in recent days.
They had been socialising in the house with a number of other people including a sister of Ms Waters but the party finished at about 2am on Sunday.
Detectives believe the shootings were carried out between 9am and 11am and inquiries in the area are underway in a bid to gather evidence from potential witnesses.