Church attack by ices
Man is arrested as front of building wrecked in spree
AN ice cream van blaring music tore through the front of a church in a bizarre incident.
A man in his late 50s hopped into the vehicle along with a younger male before the pair went on wild jaunt around the centre of Tralee in Co Kerry.
After ploughing into St John’s Catholic Church in Cloon Beg, the younger man dived from the moving van as gardai gave chase.
The incident happened on Thursday night when two males jumped into the van and later rammed it through the church gates, just off the main street in the town.
It then sped up the drive where it ploughed into the double doors.
Gardai were called to the scene at around 9.30pm.
The vehicle sped off when officers arrived at the scene and was pursued to an estate on the other side of town.
Sources said the van blared music during the chase and the passenger dived out of the moving vehicle.
When gardai eventually stopped it, the driver allegedly pulled a fake gun on officers. The item was seized and the suspect was brought to Tralee Garda station, where he was given a medical evaluation and then detained under the Mental Health Act. No one was injured in the incident.
The church was badly damaged after the front doors remained ripped from their hinges and a second set of double doors were also badly damaged.
Parts from the van were scattered around the doorway, including one of the wing mirrors and a registration plate.
A parish spokesman said nobody was inside the building at the time but there was a quick response from the community.
He added: “The church is covered by alarms and things like that, so there was somebody from the parish there within minutes.”
Independent councillor Sam Locke said it would take weeks and thousands of euro to fix the building.
He added: “The safety team were down there to look at it but they had sealed off the front entrance to it and visitors can use the side entrance, but the front door will take a number of weeks to repair.”
CO KERRY YESTERDAY
The church is covered by alarms so someone was down quickly CHURCH SPOKESMAN