GARDAÍ ARE trying to establish if a Dublin-based Chinese triad gang was responsible for an early-morning attack on a city-centre street that has left two men seriously wounded, one of them with a near-severed leg.
The incident occurred just before 2am yesterday on Capel Street in the north inner city and involved a gang of six men armed with an array of weapons including knives, a hammer and a machete or sword.
A large pool of blood stained the footpath and the front of a bar on the street where the attack unfolded.
Gardaí believe a group of six men attacked three other men on the street as part of a dispute within the Chinese community.
An emergency services call was received just before 2am and when gardaí from the Bridewell station and paramedics arrived at the scene they found a Chinese man in his late 20s lying seriously injured in a large pool of blood on the footpath.
The injured man was taken by ambulance to the Mater hospital, where his injuries were initially not believed to be life-threatening. However, it emerged that lacerations to his thigh area were so serious that the man’s leg had almost been severed.
He also had a range of other slash and blunt-trauma injuries to his head and body and for a period yesterday there were fears for his life.
However, informed sources last night said his condition had stabilised and while he was very badly injured he is expected to survive.
A second man arrived by taxi at St James’s Hospital in the city later yesterday morning. He is also a Chinese national and detectives believe he too sustained his injuries in the attack.
He had been stabbed and slashed a number of times and has injuries to his face and upper body, though his condition is not as serious as that of the man in the Mater.
Detectives are trying to establish if the larger group of men had attacked their victims as part of ongoing efforts by a Chinese organised crime gang, or triad, to extort money from other Chinese nationals based in the city.
Gardaí are hoping to interview the two injured men as soon as today if they are well enough. The scene of the incident, a large section of street, was sealed off yesterday and underwent forensic examination. Closed-circuit television footage was also gathered from businesses in the area.
