Niall Carson/PA Wire/Press Association ImagesA man has been killed and two other men injured at a boxing match weigh-in this afternoon.
The incident happened at the weigh-in for a WBO title fight in Ireland, the BBC reported. It occurred at Dublin’s Regency Hotel, in the Drumcondra district, at around 14:30.
According to The Guardian three men reportedly dressed in police uniforms burst into the hotel armed with rifles, which witnesses described as AK-47s.
The police have said that the injured men were in their 20s and 30s, and have now been taken to local hospitals with ‘possible gunshot wounds’.
Police are investigating it as a suspected gangland crime, and have sealed off the hotel for forensic examination.
BBC Radio Foyle’s sports reporter Kevin McAnena was at the hotel and said he’d ‘never felt terror like it’, adding:
I heard two loud gunshots from outside coming into the hotel. At which point, two men, who I thought were [police] officers – turns out they were just dressed up in [police] uniform – came in with guns.
That same gunman then looked over at me and pointed the gun at me. [Police] have told me since that [the guns] were AK47 rifles.
It’s so surreal, it just happened so quickly, right in front of me. A man was shot dead six feet away from me – it’s hard to gather your thoughts right now.
Pictures from the scene at the Regency Hotel, Dublin, where one man has died in a shooting https://t.co/126eJpXfT8 pic.twitter.com/q756FcQPoA
— Ireland Live News (@IrelandLive) February 5, 2016
The weigh-in was organised ahead of the Clash of the Clans show this Saturday, which was set to feature a European lightweight bout between Jamie Kavanagh and Antonio Joao Bento.
The fight – which was set to be broadcast from Dublin’s National Stadium – has now been cancelled.
Niall Carson/PA Wire/Press Association ImagesAccording to The Guardian it was being promoted by Frank Warren and MGM Promotions, a gym in Marbella run by a Birmingham-born Irish boxer called Matthew Macklin.
Apparently former European light-middleweight boxing champion Jamie Moore suffered a similar attack two years ago, when he was shot twice in the leg while training Macklin in Marbella.
