Youth held after sergeant is shot

A Garda sergeant was recovering in hospital last night after he was shot in the arm and chest in Crumlin, Dublin, yesterday morning. One of his attackers is aged 16.

The shooting was the third gun attack in Dublin in 12 hours, the first of which claimed the life of Dublin drug dealer Gary Bryan (31), from Tallaght.

Sgt Mark Clarke of Crumlin Garda station was on duty outside a house on Monasterboice Road, Crumlin, just after 7am yesterday when he was shot. The house had been shot at an hour earlier as part of a dispute between families in the area. Sgt Clarke was part of a Garda presence which was preserving the scene and offering protection to local residents.

A car carrying a teenager and a man pulled up alongside and opened fire wounding Sgt Clarke with shotgun pellets. Two colleagues who were at the scene attended to him and called an ambulance. A Garda patrol car was driving to the vicinity and met the attackers' car speeding towards them.

The patrol car turned in the road and gave chase to the wine Mitsubishi Lancer.

The chase continued to the Drimnagh area where the car used by the raiders crashed into another vehicle, a Ford Fiesta, flipping it on to its side on Benbulbin Road. The two attackers got out of their crashed car and then tried to hijack a passing van.

They fired at least one shot from their sawn-off shotgun at the van, shattering the windscreen. However, the driver, who is from Lithuania, refused to surrender his keys.

A brief scuffle ensued on the road by which time the pursuing patrol car had arrived. Both occupants were arrested and taken to Crumlin and Sundrive Road Garda stations.

They were being questioned last night under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and can be held for up to 72 hours without charge. One is aged 16 and one is in his mid-20s.

Sgt Clarke was taken by ambulance to St James's Hospital. He remained at the hospital last night but his injuries are not said to be life threatening. The attack on Sgt Clarke followed the shooting dead on Tuesday night of Gary Bryan in Bunting Road, Walkinstown. He was shot in the head as he worked on a car on the street at around 7pm. The dead man was a well-known criminal who had escaped a murder charge earlier this year when his ex-girlfriend said she could not remember details she gave in a Garda statement. Garda sources said that while they believe his death was linked to the ongoing feud between gangs in the Crumlin and Drimnagh areas, this had yet to be confirmed.

"It is the kind of feud where guys seem to be switching allegiances a lot of the time so it might take a few days before we get a handle on the full picture," said one source.