Holiday Inn Express Hotel was evacuated last evening amidst a night of disorder in Dublin.
Eyewitness accounts and social media footage suggest an attempt was made to set fire to the lobby.
The hotel has rumoured t have been used to house immigrants. The hotel is open for business for tourists.
Mark Mosco, who arrived in Dublin from Miami, said that when he left the building he saw a car on fire and many damaged Garda cars. “It’s scary, absolutely terrifying. I don’t know what’s going on. I saw a fire as soon as we got out of the hotel. I saw a fire in the middle of the road… and I saw a car that was damaged down the road. It was very terrifying, telling you to get out, putting absolute fear in my wife and I.”
Dhan-Paul Narine, who arrived in Dublin from New York City, said: “We evacuated the building and someone was knocking at the side very, very loudly. We understand that he probably got access into the building, which was very scary. So they said to us to immediately vacate. There was mass confusion. We saw lots of debris on the sidewalk, tables, chairs everything scattered all over. We could see from the windows the police officers lined up.”
The three-star hotel, located on the corner of O’Connell Street and Cathal Brugha Street, opened in 2016 with 198 bedrooms.
