Gardaí investigating the murder of a young Latvian man stabbed to death in a house in Artane, north Dublin, yesterday morning are appealing for help from the public with their inquiries.
Gardaí yesterday launched a murder investigation following the fatal stabbing of the 25-year-old in his home at Ardcollum Avenue at about 8.45am.
The victim, originally from Riga, had been living in the rented house with a number of other eastern European men and women since last July.
Gardaí believe two men entered the house and went to an upstairs bedroom, where they stabbed their victim a number of times in his side before discarding the knife and leaving the house. There was one other occupant in the house at the time - a woman who did not speak English. However, she phoned another tenant who alerted the emergency services.
The man was removed by ambulance to nearby Beaumont Hospital, where he died from his injuries at about 9.30am.
Gardaí recovered a knife from the scene which they believe to be the murder weapon and a postmortem was carried out yesterday afternoon.
Supt Noel McLoughlin, leading the investigation, said the man was stabbed several times in what was a swiftly executed attack. "This was a vicious attack that was over quite quickly."
Gardaí yesterday interviewed the members of the household who were at work at the time of the incident with the help of interpreters.
Supt McLoughlin said they do not know the motive for the attack and are not following a definite line of inquiry. "We are appealing to people in the Artane and Coolock areas, particularly people who left their houses to go to work between 7.30am and 9.30am who may have seen something suspicious or may have seen the culprits leaving this particular house to come forward," he said.
Gardaí are also appealing to members of the Latvian community who might be able to provide assistance to contact them. They are asking employers who have eastern European staff to contact them if any of their workers were absent yesterday.
Gardaí are keeping an open mind on whether the culprits are Irish or foreign nationals, said Supt McLoughlin, and it is not yet known if the attackers were known to their victim.
The area has been sealed off and officers from the Garda Technical Bureau are examining it.
It is understood the young man entered the country last summer and was working for a number of months, but has been unemployed since Christmas.
Neighbours said yesterday that they were shocked by the incident. The house had been rented out to eastern Europeans for a number of years and there had never been any trouble.
"I didn't know anything had happened until the ambulance came. I was up and my husband had already been out, but neither of us noticed anything," one neighbour said.
