Petrol bomb is thrown at home of ill pensioner as she sleeps

GARDAÍ are investigating a shocking fire-bomb attack on a south Dublin home while a female pensioner was asleep inside.

A petrol bomb was thrown at the Crumlin property on Monday night and gardaí are probing whether the incident is linked to a serious attack in a midlands county recently.

A source told the Irish Independent it was a “miracle” the pensioner, who is in her 70s and understood to be very ill, was not killed in the attack.

She has been described as “completely innocent” and local gardaí are trying to establish if a younger relative was the intended target of the fire bomb attack.

Emergency services were alerted to the scene in the Rutland area of Crumlin at around 9pm on Monday.

A lone male is believed to have approached the property before throwing a rock through a front window and smashing it.

A petrol canister was then set alight and thrown at the property.

Luckily, the fire bomb failed to ignite inside the house but it did cause damage to the front of the property.

The suspect then fled the scene in a car and efforts were being made to identify the man behind the shocking incident.

A Garda spokeswoman confirmed that officers at Sundrive Road garda station are investigating an incident of criminal damage in the Rutland area at around 9pm on Monday.

No arrests have yet been made and investigations are ongoing.

A source said gardaí are probing if the attack is part of a dispute linked to a serious attack that was carried out in a midlands county recently.

“There could easily have been a fatality in this case if the petrol canister had ignited inside the house,” the source explained.

“The pensioner, who is quite ill, was sleeping inside when it was thrown at the house.

“She is obviously a completely innocent person and investigators are attempting to establish if a younger relative was the intended target in this incident.”

A number of younger males known to the woman have been involved in criminality over the last three decades and may have been the intended targets of the petrol bomb attack.

However, despite their long-term involvement in crime, Monday night’s incident has been described as being a more personal dispute and not directly linked to their long criminal history.

They have been charged and convicted of a litany of various crimes over the years, including bank robbery and possession of firearms, as well as drug dealing.

In one case, one of the men threatened to kill a garda before pointing a shotgun at him.

He later received a lengthy jail term after being convicted over the incident.

‘There could have been a fatality if the canister had ignited’