A teenager has been injured after he was struck by a car at the Blanchardstown shopping centre in Dublin on Friday evening.
The youth, believed to be 15, was taken to Temple Street Children’s Hospital to be treated for his injuries, which are not thought to be life-threatening.
He is receiving treatment for leg injuries sustained in the collision.
Gardaí said there may have been an altercation before the car struck the boy at around 5pm and the driver left the scene.
Gardaí have appealed for any witnesses to come forward with information.
A worker in the Starbucks Coffee shop directly in front of where the incident took place said several people ran into the premises in a panic. “People just ran in here to get away from it all,” she said.
She said the car “came straight onto the path”, hit the teenager, then “turned, and went away”.
The collision appeared to be deliberate from her viewpoint, she said. “It [THE CAR]went for a group of them and hit one.”
The employee said the other teenagers in the group moved out of the way of the vehicle as it drove towards the group. She described the scene as “mad”.
David McGuinness, an Independent councillor in the area, said a member of his family witnessed the entire incident.
He said he was told a car mounted the pedestrianised pavement area outside TGI Fridays restaurant and Leisureplex at the shopping centre, and collided with a young male, before turning around and then driving away.
Mr McGuinness said the incident was “very serious” and would have been “very distressing” for people in the area who witnessed the collision.
The area opposite the main shopping centre was “heavily pedestrianised”, he said, and there were a lot of young people nearby at the time due to the holiday season.
Emergency services responded to the incident in a number of minutes and cordoned off the area while treating the victim.
A manager in Dante’s pizza restaurant beside the Starbucks said she only heard the collision take place.
The restaurant was busy at the time, and customers eating beside the window looking out onto the pedestrian path got a shock, she said.
“It’s just horrible, mental,” the manager said.
