Seven people were in hospital following a high-speed chase through Cork city centre yesterday afternoon.
Motorists looked on in disbelief as suspected drug dealers were chased through busy streets by gardai, ending in a car crash at a busy junction.
A drugs gang had been under surveillance by gardai in the Glanmire area of the city and two people driving a Vauxhall van were followed to a suspected drug pick-up point in the area. But one of the unmarked Garda cars trailing the suspects was spotted at about 3.30 p.m. and rammed, resulting in a garda suffering a broken arm. This led to a general alert and other gardai were mobilised to help in the chase through busy streets, narrow lanes, and oneway streets.
The chase went from Glan mire, past the Silver Springs Hotel on the main entrance to the city from Dublin to Cork, then swung back to the Mayfield area in the north side of the city before the suspects again approached the city centre and used one-way streets near Ceannt railway station in an effort to avoid gardai.
It then centred on Eglantine Street when the suspects drove against the traffic once again and crashed into a taxi at the junction of Cork's South Link road.
One person in the van was thrown through the windscreen while the other man also received injuries. The taxi-driver and one of his passengers - a young woman - were also injured and they were receiving treatment in hospital last night as were the two suspects. Three units of the city fire brigade were called out to cut the injured from the wreckage.
The drugs squad garda who sustained a broken arm was released from hospital as were two of her colleagues.
A senior Garda officer in Cork said last night that £50,000 worth of cannabis was recovered in a follow-up operation, along with a number of knives.
It has been suggested that some of the speeds reached during the chase came to 80 m.p.h., but a senior Garda source in Cork said that established procedure was adhered to during the chase and Garda personnel did not endanger their lives through excessive speed but radioed ahead to other colleagues in an attempt to stop the car.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident in Cork city, two gardai were hospitalised early yesterday after their car was rammed by a stolen car which was earlier used to ram-raid three banks in the city.
It is understood the two thieves stole a Honda sports car late on Monday night and at 4 a.m. yesterday they drove to Bridge Street, near Cork city centre, where they rammed the vehicle into a Bank of Ireland branch.
Unsuccessful there, they went to an AIB branch at Main Street and when they also failed to get cash from this branch, they went to the Western Road AIB branch, where again they were unsuccessful.
They then met a Garda patrol car which they rammed head-on, causing substantial damage to both vehicles.
Although Garda Finbarr Walsh, from Anglesea Street, and Garda Jim Bugler, from the Bridewell Garda station, were injured they managed to detain the two men until help arrived. The pair, in their 20s and with addresses in Cork, were released without charge but a file is being prepared for the DPP.