Gardai were last night questioning two men, aged in their 20s, about two serious assaults in Dublin city centre in which the 50-year-old owner of a Chinese takeaway and a Dublin businessman were attacked.
The takeaway owner was described as critically ill and unconscious in St James's Hospital yesterday evening. He received serious head injuries when he and a friend were attacked as they walked along Fownes Street in Temple Bar at about 2 a.m. yesterday. It is believed the man was kicked in the head.
A short time later another man was attacked and severely beaten in the Bachelor's Walk area on the north side of the Liffey. Again the man was attacked by two young men as he was walking along the street.
Gardaí alerted to the attack in Fownes Street were in contact with colleagues from the North Central Division quickly after the second attack and two men were arrested. One lives in an apartment on the north quays of the Liffey and the other is from Sutton, Co Dublin.
They were being questioned last evening in Pearse Street Garda station.
Gardaí said a file was being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions, and they were awaiting a direction as to whether to charge or release the two, pending summons and possible charges at a later date.
According to gardaí there was no evidence of any dispute before either of the assaults, which appeared to be totally unprovoked.
Meanwhile, gardaí in Dublin's South Eastern Division are still taking statements from up to 20 youths who were involved in a melee at Taney Road junction in Goatstown on Wednesday morning that left a 19-year-old man in a coma with very serious head injuries.
It is believed the man was kicked a number of times in the head after being knocked to the ground during an outbreak of fighting between two groups of youths.
One group had earlier been in a public house on a night out before receiving Leaving Cert results. It is believed the other group had gathered at a filling station in Taney Road near the pub and had been causing vandalism shortly before the other youths emerged from the pub. The injured youth is in Beaumont Hospital.