A number of others injured including one seriously after gunmen open fire in hotel during weigh-in for WBO European lightweight fight

One man has been shot dead and at least one other was seriously injured after gunmen dressed as police officers opened fire during a weigh-in for a WBO European boxing match in Ireland on Friday afternoon.

The incident happened at the Regency hotel in north Dublin, which was packed at the time with boxing fans and supporters of the Welsh rugby team in the Irish capital ahead of the Six Nations clash with Ireland on Sunday.



It is understood the targets of the attack were key members of a Dublin criminal gang run by a notorious Irish gangster who controls a drug smuggling empire from Spain’s Costa del Sol. The dead man was known by gardaí to be involved in organised crime.

Security sources said the chief suspects in the shooting at around 2.30pm are loyal to a rival gangland figure based in north Dublin. There are now fears that the shooting will spark a bloody north-side versus south-side gangland war in the Irish capital.



Gardaí later said three men had burst into the hotel foyer around 2.30pm dressed, according to eyewitnesses, in “police-style uniforms”. Some reports suggested the gunmen wore fake high-visibility bibs with ERU printed on them, standing for “Emergency Response Unit” – the armed unit of the Garda Siochana.

The Garda are investigating reports that the gunmen were also carrying Kalashnikov-style rifles when they opened fire at a number of men inside the hotel. Dozens of people fled in panic from the hotel when the shooting started, eyewitnesses said. The killers are reported to have escaped on foot through the grounds of a local Gaelic football club.



The wounded were rushed to the nearby Beaumont and Mater hospitals in the north of the city but one of those who had been shot died shortly afterwards. At least one other man is said to be in a critical condition while three others, all in their twenties, were taken to the two hospitals with gunshot wounds. None are thought to be suffering from life-threatening injuries.



The shooting took place during the weigh-in ahead of Saturday’s boxing bout at the National Arena in the Tallaght area of west Dublin. Top of the bill was a fight between Jamie Kavanagh and Antonio Joao Bento for the vacant WBO European lightweight title.

This bout and another fight on a card the organisers MGM described as a “Clash of the Clans” were due to be broadcast live on the boxing channel Box Nation.



Box Nation said in a statement on Twitter that the show has now been cancelled owing to the shooting.



“Following today’s incident at the Dublin weigh-in, tomorrow’s show from the National Stadium has been cancelled,” the post said.



Shortly after the attack, Dublin fire brigade dispatched crews from both Finglas and Phibsboro in north Dublin as well as paramedics to the scene of the popular hotel, which is just off the main road from the city centre to Dublin airport.

They tweeted: “We’re responding to a serious incident in a hotel in Whitehall, crews from Finglas, P’boro + advanced paramedics.”

Irish detectives are now investigating a possible revenge motive for the hotel attack and the murder of a relative of a well-known north Dublin gangster in Spain last September.

Over the last 15 years, there have been around 200 gangland-style murders of rival criminals mostly in the Greater Dublin area with only a handful of convictions so far.