Gardaí are investigating suspected arson attacks at two locations in Waterford city in the early hours of Wednesday.
It is understood a car was set alight in a petrol bomb attack outside a house in Grantstown Park at around midnight and that a petrol bomb was thrown at the front door of another house about 7km away on Dominic’s Place at around 3am. No-one was injured in either incident.
The house, occupied by a couple and their son at the time, sustained damage to its front door.
Pat O’Brien, who lives in the house, told WLR FM that his son Alan woke him at 3.10am to say the door was on fire
“Whoever did this was out to do real damage,” Mr O’Brien told presenter Damien Tiernan. “If (the bomb) had gone through the window, Alan was in that room there (beside it).”
He said the family had been frightened by the incident, which was unusual for the area. It is understood gardaí believe the attack happened in a case of mistaken identity.
Gardaí said a motorbike was heard revving its engine outside the house around the time of the incident and also at the scene of the earlier incident.
“Gardaí have not established yet if there is a link between the two incidents,” a spokesman for the force said.
Both scenes were examined by a forensic officers on Wednesday.
Fianna Fáil councillor Eamon Quinlan, who lives near Dominic’s Place, said the incidents were “highly disturbing” and he believed they represented an “escalation of organised criminal activity” in the area.