Garda of Laser was involved in the arrest of a man in connection with a carjacking.

Pepper spray used to restrain suspected carjacker

PEPPER spray had to be used to restrain the man arrested in connection with an attempted carjacking in Cork.

The man was arrested late on Tuesday night after hiding in undergrowth near Willow Park in Douglas.

Uniformed gardaí and detectives responded to a call after a woman was threatened with a knife while stopped at traffic lights in Douglas at around 11.10pm.

Her car was approached by a man and the woman later told gardaí the man produced a large kitchen knife. He ordered her to get out of the car but he appeared to panic and fled the scene on foot when the traffic lights turned green.

The woman, who was left traumatised by the incident, quickly raised the alarm and gardaí responded.

When gardaí spotted the suspect, he fled into undergrowth.

Gardai formed a cordon around the area until the arrival of the garda dog unit, who were returning from searches in Waterford.

The suspect was found by garda dog Laser and his handler, Garda Patrick Harrington.

However, when gardaí moved to arrest the man, he had to be restrained with pepper spray.

The man was being held in Togher garda station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.

Follow up searches for the weapon used in the incident took place yesterday but nothing was recovered.

Laser was also involved in that search.

There are two dog handlers in the Garda Dog Unit in Cork, and the dogs are used for purposes including crowd control, tracking people, locating stolen property, and searching for drugs and firearms.