BREAKING: Man due in court after knife is seized following incident close to Limerick school

A MAN has been arrested and a knife seized following an incident close to a Limerick school this Friday.

The man, aged in his 20s, was arrested after "acting erratically" on the Corbally Road in Limerick this morning.

"With the assistance of the Armed Support Unit, a man in his 20s was arrested in the area shortly after. A small flick knife was seized," said a spokesperson for the gardai.

The man was detained at a garda station in Limerick city. He has since been charged and will appear before the Limerick District Court this Saturday morning, February 10. 

Confirmation of the arrest follows a number of hours of speculation and discussion among concerned parents and people in the Corbally area. Some parents took to social media following the incident to outline how they had travelled to the school gates to collect their child, having heard of an incident in the area.

"I never got a fright like that in my life," said one parent.

According to Labour councillor, Conor Sheehan, "unsubstantiated rumours" circulated over social media.

“There were a number of rumours that circulated, unsubstantiated rumours around what happened today. They were circulated on social media. I just ask people to be very cautious about forwarding on information unless they're fully confident, to make sure that they get their information from a reliable source because there was quite a lot of panic in the community.

"Obviously this is very frightening and this is not something that we're used to in Corbally. Corbally is a beautiful, peaceful and area where I've lived all of my life,” he said.

Fine Gael councillor, Olivia O'Sullivan, said: "Any incident near a school is distressing to hear for parents, but the Gardaí have asked us to be aware of significant exaggeration in the stories surrounding this incident. There is a lot of misinformation circulating, we must make sure we listen to the facts."