“Whatever their nationality”, they are now “Irish heroes”: Dublin saluted this Friday the people, including a Brazilian delivery man and a French high school student, who overpowered the author of a knife attack near a school in the Irish capital. “This is a horrific act of violence,” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said of Thursday’s attack, in which five people were injured. A five-year-old girl and a teacher are in critical condition, according to police. The Prime Minister saluted “all those who risked their lives to save lives” and on the contrary denounced the rioters who sowed chaos Thursday evening in the center of Dublin, in a district where there is a particularly immigrant population.
The authorities accused those responsible for these riots of being close to the extreme right. After the attack which took place near the school, rumors spread on social networks about the origins of its author, who according toIrish Times, a man naturalized Irish after living in the country for twenty years. Deputy Prime Minister Micheál Martin paid tribute to a Brazilian delivery man. “First of all, the person who intervened was a Brazilian delivery man. It’s part of the story. We must not forget that,” he said.
Macron called Alan
This Brazilian, Caio Benicio, explained to the British agency Press Association that he was on his motorbike when he saw what he thought was a fight. He saw a man grab a little girl and attack her with a knife. “When I saw the knife, I stopped my motorbike and then I acted on instinct,” said the father of two. He took out his helmet and hit the attacker “with all his might”. Thursday night’s riots were “against immigrants”, and “it makes no sense to me because I am an immigrant myself and I was the one who helped”, said the Brazilian who has lived in Ireland since about twenty years.
A young Frenchman, Alan, also intervened to subdue the attacker. He is a student from a hotel high school in the Ardennes, on an internship in a restaurant in Dublin since last month. French President Emmanuel Macron telephoned him “to congratulate and thank him for this act of bravery which helped save lives and which makes us all proud”, according to the Elysée. The restaurant where he works also paid him a nice tribute on Instagram. The 17-year-old “was one of the brave heroes who managed to disarm the schoolboy attacker yesterday in Dublin on his way to work,” he wrote alongside the photo of Alan.
“He noticed that something was happening as he passed by and threw himself at the attacker to stop him and managed to snatch his knife,” says the establishment. Alan suffered injuries to his hand and face. “Without this act of bravery, who knows what might have happened? », asks the restaurant. At the conclusion of this publication, the establishment dares a little touch of humor: “Not all superheroes wear capes. “.