GARDA authorities are to hold an internal investigation into how a detective garda came to fire a shot at intruders near the home of the Israeli ambassador in Dublin early yesterday.
The detective, a member of the Special Branch detail which guards the ambassador's home, said he fired the shot after one of two men pointed what appeared to be a gun at him.
Garda Headquarters said internal investigations are held as a matter of routine when a member of the force discharges his or her weapon.
The incident took place at about 1 a.m. yesterday when two men were seen apparently trying to enter an apartment block at Ballsbridge Wood, near Shelhourne Road. The ambassador, Mr Zvi Gabay, has an apartment in the complex.
The detective said he saw fro men dressed in black attempting to climb a drainpipe at the apartment complex. He shouted at them, and identified himself as a detective garda.
One of the two men turned towards him with what appeared to be a gun, and the detective drew his weapon and fired one shot. The detective is believed to have been armed with a standard Smith & Wesson .38 revolver.
The two men ran from the scene, escaping by the banks of the Dodder river. No weapon was recovered at the scene.
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, was briefed on the incident yesterday morning,
Asked about the incident last night, Mr Gabay said he had "no knowledge about it at all". "It's nothing to do with us," he said. "We weren't at home last night."
The ambassador is guarded both by gardai and by Israeli security guards. "The police are with me all the time," Mr Gabay said. "Irish police, and we have our own."
Mr Gabay is the first resident Israeli ambassador.
The Israeli embassy, which is nearby In an office block on Pembroke Road, was opened only last year, 21 years after full diplomatic relations between the Republic and Israel were established.