Man arrested after couple injured in Offaly shooting

A man has been arrested in connection with the shooting of a couple in front of a seven-year-old boy in Co Offaly last night.

The couple received gunshot wounds when they were shot in the Cluain Darach estate in Tullamore at about 7.15pm.

Garda Insp Kieran Keyes from Tullamore Garda station said a man arrived at the estate in a car and fired shots through the door of a house injuring a man and woman.

“This man suffered a wound to his back and his partner, who was at the door, suffered a wounds to her shoulder,” he explained.

It is understood the woman’s seven-year-old son witnessed the incident. A struggle ensued between the injured man and his assailant before further shots were fired.

The gunman then got into a silver-coloured car and sped away towards the Tullamore bypass. Gardaí are treating the incident as attempted murder.

It is understood the woman, in her late 20s, has undergone surgery in the Midlands Regional Hospital at Tullamore. The man, in his mid-30s, was treated at the scene but did not attend hospital. Gardaí later found a burned out car in Durrow, Co Offaly.

Gardai said they arrested a man in his early twenties in the Offaly area this morning and he is being questioned at Tullamore Garda station under the provisions of Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

In a separate shooting incident last night two men were injured in a gun attack in north Dublin.

The two brothers, aged 21 and 25, were shot at as they left a flat on the Cromcastle Court estate in Coolock at around 10pm last night.

Their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

One of the men was shot in a leg.