Man, 68, questioned over collisions with ancient wooden doors and with vehicles in centre of Irish capital in the early morning

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The wooden doors into Trinity College Dublin have been extensively damaged after a car rammed into them.

A 68-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the incident on Tuesday morning at one of the world's oldest universities.

A number of other vehicles around College Green, in the centre of the Irish capital, were also damaged in the collision, at around 6.30am.

A spokesperson for Trinity College said that despite the car being "pursued by college security, it drove through the front section of the college and then drove back towards Front Gate, which had been closed by college security".

"However, the driver proceed to ram into the historic entrance a number of times, succeeding eventually to break through it and causing damage. The driver then proceeded to drive on to Dame Street, followed by Nassau Street and against the traffic on Dawson Street, where he was arrested by the gardaí at approximately 6.35am.

"Due to the incident, Front Gate will be closed all day today for repairs, and it is anticipated that it will reopen tomorrow. The entrances to Pearse Street and Nassau Street will remain open."

Gardaí from Pearse Street station are questioning the man, and police have closed the main gates to the university while their investigations continue.

Elizabeth I was on the throne and England was strengthening its control over Ireland when Trinity College Dublin was granted a royal charter to open, in the 1590s.

A prayer in Latin is said even now in her honour at a special dinner each evening for Trinity scholars.

Trinity's long list of famous alumni includes the 18th-century satirist and author of Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift; Wolfe Tone, the leader of the 1798 rebellion against British rule; the physicist Ernest Walton, who won the Nobel prize for his work on the atom; the philosophers Robert Berkeley and Edmund Burke: the playwrights Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett; and Ireland's two female presidents, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese.

The university is a major tourist magnet, with hundreds passing through its wooden doors into a partially cobblestoned square almost every day of the year.