Two more people have been injured in violent attacks on Dublin's streets. One of the victims was a French man, but gardaí do not believe that the assault was racially motivated.
The attacks come in the wake of the murder this week of an English national in his north Co Dublin home, the death in hospital of an Asian man viciously beaten in Temple Bar and a flurry of serious assaults in the city over previous weekends.
A man remains in a serious condition in the Mater Hospital after being stabbed repeatedly when he intervened in a row between a man and a woman on Thursday evening.
The attack took place outside a pub on Dorset Street at about 8 p.m. A number of people came out of the pub and tackled the man with the knife. He was also taken to the Mater. Gardaí were waiting to interview him once he had recovered from his injuries, which were not thought to be serious.
Earlier on Thursday evening, a French national living in Ireland was stabbed in an unprovoked attack on Parnell Square east.
The man was stabbed in the back by an attacker who attempted to sell him a mobile phone, gardaí said. When he declined, he was stabbed.
The victim was taken to the Mater Hospital, where his injuries were described as not serious. He was released a few hours later. Gardaí say that they are looking for an 18/19-year-old man with a pale complexion and a cream jacket.
In a third incident, a woman is in intensive care in Tallaght Hospital after being found injured in a house at nearby Castle Lawns on Thursday evening. Gardaí believe she had been assaulted. No arrests have yet been made in the case.
A murder investigation is under way after Mr Kevin French (41), originally from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was killed in his back garden in Swords, Co Dublin, on Wednesday. A post-mortem examination found that he suffered multiple blows to the back of the head.
On Tuesday, Mr Leong Ly Min (50), a Chinese-Vietnamese national who had been resident in Ireland since the late 1970s, died from injuries sustained in an attack in Temple Bar. Two men have been charged in relation to his death and remain in custody.
Opposition politicians said that the increase in assaults suggested that gardaí were not equipped to deal with street violence.