Man shot with ‘bean-bag’ round as gardaí called to direct provision centre

Man, in his 30s, said to have doused himself with petrol during incident in central Dublin

A man was taken into custody following a brief stand-off with armed gardaí at a direct provision centre in central Dublin on Monday.

Members of the Armed Support Unit brought the incident on Hatch Street to an end by firing a less than lethal "bean-bag" round at the man, who is in his 30s.

Members of the unit were called to the centre at around 3.40pm after receiving reports that the man, believed to live in the centre, had damaged a room and threatened to pour petrol over himself.

Gardaí did not know if the threats to use petrol were genuine and a plan was drawn up to subdue the man.

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At 3.49pm members of the unit stormed the room and fired a bean-bag round at the man, which allowed officers to subdue and arrest him.

In the ordinary course of events a Taser device would be deployed in such circumstances but it was determined that an electric charge could have ignited the petrol.

The man was detained under the Mental Health Act and was receiving medical attention on Monday night.

A Garda spokesman said no one else was injured or put at risk during the incident.

A garda source said the man “was not in a good place” and appeared to be “staging some kind of protest”.

Conor Gallagher

Conor Gallagher

Conor Gallagher is Crime and Security Correspondent of The Irish Times