AN 11-YEAR-OLD Dublin girl was in a stable condition in Crumlin children’s Hospital last night after receiving serious burns in an arson attack on a house in Longford.
The young girl was visiting relatives on Thursday night when the attack occurred at the Pauric Colum Heights estate in the town. She received serious burns to her face, chest and hands. The child’s grandaunt revealed the occupants of the house had pleaded with the assailants seconds before the petrol bombs were thrown.
Ann Joyce, whose home was attacked, said: “The front door was broke in on top of us. I roared at them to go away, there’s no one here but me and small children. After that they came back in and threw a petrol bomb in on top of us.
“My daughter had seen them in the garden before that and she begged them not do it. She shouted down from the building that there was a child upstairs and that’s when they done it. They knew the children were there, we told them that,” added Ms Joyce.
Her sister, Julie Ward had been visiting from Clondalkin in Dublin with her granddaughter. “We were just in the house and we heard all the windows getting broke. It all happened so suddenly,” she said.
“My granddaughter was standing in the middle of the floor and a fella shouted in, ‘we got ye now’. He just threw in a petrol bomb and she got the whole force of it. My grandchild is lying in Crumlin hospital critically ill over all this.
John Joyce arrived at the house minutes after the attack. “The house was just engulfed. The ambulance was there the fire brigade was there. I though there was someone dead. Thank God there was no one dead.”
He said the house was attacked by four men carrying petrol bombs and slash hooks. The men began by smashing windows and kicking in the front door shortly before midnight, he claimed.
His brother, who had been outside smoking, saw the four men approach the house. He ran to the rear of the house to alert his family. At that stage the men had kicked in the front door.
“When they ran to the hall the front door was attacked with a slashhook and kicked in. Two fellas walked into the house with petrol bombs and said, ‘here take that, yer all going to burn to death’.”
Two men in their early 20s have been arrested for questioning in relation to the attack. One was arrested a short distance from the scene shortly after the attack, while the second was arrested in Longford at noon yesterday.