Gardaí search for man after officers assaulted in Leitrim

Gardaí are searching for a man following an incident overnight in Co Leitrim in which members of the force were allegedly assaulted with bottles and a stick.

Two other men were arrested on Tuesday morning following a land and air search and were being questioned at Manorhamilton Garda station.

The arrests occurred after gardaí on patrol in the Mahanagh area of Drumshanbo area late on Monday became suspicious about a car. The English-registered Ford Focus had been reported for failing to stop for gardaí at Carrick-on-Shannon on August 16th.

On Monday, when the three young men in the car were asked for identification, one of them tried to escape and assaulted one of the gardaí.

As the situation escalated, gardaí deployed pepper spray and the other two allegedly attacked gardaí with bottles, stones and a stick. The driver managed to escape during the exchanges.

The men also had a dog in the car and allegedly tried to set the animal on the gardaí during the confrontation before making their escape.

Back-up assistance was immediately requested and the Garda Air Support helicopter and Dog Unit were quickly at the scene, along with other gardaí as a widespread search got under way for the trio.

The search continued through the night and shortly after 7am one of the men was found in a field and taken into custody. The second was arrested after being spotted in Dowra shortly afterwards.

The third man was still at large on Tuesday.

The men are believed to be in their early 20s and are all thought to be from the locality.