Terrifying scenes as an empty Lidl store in west Dublin is dramatically looted

*An earlier version of this piece, working on reports from RTÉ News, stated that the Lidl store was set on fire

On Friday a closed Lidl store in west Dublin was set-upon by looters - who then made off with significant quantities of produce.

The supermarket on Fortunestown Lane in the Citywest area of the city was broken into on Friday evening - sparking the arrival of hundreds of people.

We have 3 fire engines from Tallaght & Dolphin's Barn stations responding to reports of a fire in a supermarket in #Fortunestown Lane #CityWest pic.twitter.com/aMsTUA1Hot — Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) March 2, 2018

Frightening videos shared on social media show people making off with items belonging to the store.

Gardaí told Her this evening that they are "responding to several incidents in the Tallaght District and a number of arrests have been made".

Although it was rumoured on social media that the Army was also on the scene, a spokesperson told us at 7.50pm: "We have no requests for assistance from Gardaí."

A video being widely shared on Twitter showed several young men driving a digger from the location.

Another showed construction machinery being used to break down the roof of the building.

Footage was also being shared from inside the supermarket.

One person who say they witnessed the looting stated that the supermarket was getting "smashed up". Another said it was being "emptied".

One man highlighted that in his 15 years living in Dublin, it was only the second incidence of looting he'd been aware of - the first being the Love Ulster riots in 2006.

In a statement issued to Her this evening, Lidl said: "We are aware of the very serious incident at our Fortunestown Lane store this evening.

"Given that the incident is now the subject of a criminal investigation we are not in a position to comment further at this time."

A later statement added: "As our store on Fortunestown Lane was closed when the incident occurred this evening, we can confirm no member of our team has been injured."