Family's terror as car shot up with machine gun outside home.
KEN FOY AND ROBIN SCHILLER – 19 MAY 2015 04:30 AM
A car belonging to an innocent family was raked with machine gun fire in a drive-by shooting in north Dublin.
No motive has yet been established for the attack which happened at the Farnham Drive estate in Finglas shortly before 8.30pm on Sunday.
The shots were discharged by a gunman who was a passenger on a motorbike and who was wearing dark clothes.
The 50-year-old owner of the targeted car has no involvement in crime and neither he or his family are known to gardai.
No-one was injured in the incident which may have been a case of mistaken identity. There have been no arrests so far.
The gunman fled from the scene on a high-powered motorbike and it is understood that the attacked car was extensively damaged in the incident.
ATTACK
"It seems that a machine gun, or a similar type of weapon, was used in this attack so it is being taken very seriously," a source pointed out last night.
When the Herald called to the house at Farnham Drive yesterday, there was no one home but a neighbour described how she heard several repeated loud bangs on the night, and thought her car was being damaged but it turned out to be her neighbour's vehicle.
"I was in the sitting room and all of a sudden there were a few loud bangs in a row. I thought it was somebody hitting my car.
I looked out and saw a motorbike speeding up the road. I couldn't believe it when I heard it was a gun being fired, it's shocking," the neighbour said.
"It must be a case of mistaken identity, the family are lovely, well-educated people. They're quiet and keep to themselves so I can't imagine any reason why someone would do this, other then that they got the wrong house," they added.
The family are understood to have left the house yesterday morning and had not returned to the address by last night.
Machine gun attacks in Ireland are extremely rare and Sunday evening's incident has led to major concern that such a high velocity weapon is in circulation in the Finglas area.
