Two people have been arrested in connection with the murder of Melanie McCarthy McNamara, the 16-year-old girl shot dead in Dublin last week.

The males, aged 17 and 23, were arrested in Athy, Co Kildare, this afternoon by detectives from Tallaght, along with gardaí from Kildare and armed officers from the Emergency Response Unit.

The two are now being detained at Tallaght Garda Station and can be questioned for up to a week.

Gardaí are describing the arrests as significant.

Detectives are also awaiting the results of DNA and other forensic tests carried out on spent cartridges, a balaclava, a scarf and gloves recovered at Bianconi Avenue near where the killers abandoned their stolen getaway jeep.

Ms McCarthy McNamara was shot in the head by a gunman while sitting in a car at Brookview Way in Tallaght.

She was one of four people in the car at the time and gardaí later stated she was not the intended target of the attack.

A black Hyundai Santa Fe was later found abandoned on the Dublin to Naas road.

Gardaí described the shooting as a particularly heinous crime.

