Two brothers held over hostage situation at Cork house

Armed gardaí had to smash in a door and use a taser to overpower two brothers holding members of their family hostage in Cork city.

Armed members of the Regional Support Unit forced their way into a house at St Mary’s Avenue off Cathedral Road shortly before 9am following a three-and-a-half-hour stand-off.

The alarm had been raised at about 5.30am when a woman called gardaí to alert them that her partner was holding members of his family hostage in the house.

The man had told his partner that gardaí were going to confront a horror scene when they arrived at the house as he was going to harm his mother and his mother’s partner.

Gardaí arrived at the scene and a trained negotiator sought to engage with the man and his brother, who are both in their late 20s and were said to have been intoxicated. The negotiations failed to resolve the situation.

Shortly before 9am, gardaí decided to make “a hard entry” and armed members of the Regional Support Unit smashed down the front door of the property.

The brothers had barricaded themselves upstairs but during discussions they agreed to release their mother - a woman in her late 50s - and she was brought to safety.

The men refused to release the other hostage and began throwing gas cylinders and dumbbells down the stairs at members of the Regional Support Unit.

Gardaí made their way up the stairs and used a taser to subdue one man who was then assessed at the scene by a doctor before being arrestd.

The other brother, who was not tasered, was also arrested.

The man’s mother and her partner suffered non-life threatening cut wounds and were taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital.