LONDON — A driver was arrested early Friday morning in Dublin after crashing his van into gates outside the home of Ireland’s president, the prime minister’s offices and the building that houses parliament, police said.
Detectives who questioned the suspect had ruled out terrorism as a motive.
The series of incidents occurred around 2 a.m., when government offices were closed and no injuries were reported.
The van first collided with the fence in front of the official residence of President Michael Higgins, but did not enter the premises. The driver then traveled about 5 kilometers (3 miles) to central Dublin, where the van crashed into several doors outside two government building complexes.
Pickets on the sturdy iron fence outside Prime Minister Simon Harris’s offices were bent inwards and the door was knocked off its hinges outside the attorney general’s office.
Louise O’Reilly, a member of parliament for the Sinn Féin party, said she and other lawmakers will ask the police, known as gardaí, how the incidents could have happened.
“It is difficult to understand how anyone could carry out these attacks in several locations in this way,” O’Reilly told national broadcaster RTE. “We will be waiting for the gardaí to provide us with information about how this could have developed and how someone could have traveled to three different locations in Dublin city before being detained.”
The driver, aged in his 40s, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of committing a traffic offence. The white truck he was driving was towed from the scene.
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