Armed units responding to several serious incidents in Tallaght

GARDAI are responding this evening to a number of serious incidents in Tallaght, with armed units currently in the area. 

According to reports, the Lidl on Fortunestown Lane was broken into earlier this evening, which resulted in a number of people entering the store and reportedly taking items.

Since then, footage emerged of a JCB damaging the Lidl store (*this video contains bad language) – with the local supermarket lying in ruins tonight. 

Dublin Fire Brigade attended the scene. However, despite earlier reports that the Lidl store has been set on fire, they found no fire on arrival.  

We’ve left the scene of the supermarket in #Fortunestown #CityWest , no fire found. Gardai are attending the incident pic.twitter.com/BO5SzOASNd

— Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) March 2, 2018

Members of the public have taken to social media this evening to express their anger over the incident, with The Echo understanding that many people are feeling unsafe in the area tonight.  

In a statement from Lidl, a spokesperson said: “We are aware of the very serious incident at our Fortunestown Lane store this evening.

“Given that the incident is now the subject of a criminal investigation we are not in a position to comment further at this time.

“As our store on Fortunestown Lane was closed when the incident occurred this evening, we can confirm no member of our team has been injured.”

An incident at the Centra in Jobstown is also being investigated, after a hole was cut in the one of the shutters earlier tonight.

Speaking with The Echo tonight, a Garda spokesman said: “Gardaí are responding to several incidents in the Tallaght District and a number of arrests have been made.

“We would ask anybody who has any information or who sees any further incidents to contact gardai.”

Contact Tallaght Garda Station on 6666000. 

Remains of Lidl in Fortunestown

Updates to follow.