{"id":223302,"date":"2026-01-02T11:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T11:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/223302\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T11:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T11:01:08","slug":"arrest-made-and-store-evacuated-as-man-sets-off-foul-smelling-spray-in-cork-shopping-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/223302\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrest made and store evacuated as man sets off ‘foul-smelling spray’ in Cork shopping centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Customers complained that the smell made it hard to breathe<\/p>\n

09:17, 02 Jan 2026Updated 09:24, 02 Jan 2026<\/p>\n

\"DunnesDunnes Stores in Ballyvolane<\/p>\n

A man was arrested and a busy Cork city<\/a> shopping centre was evacuated after a powerful, foul-smelling spray was set off in the premises yesterday.<\/p>\n

The incident occurred on New Year’s Day in the Ballyvolane Dunnes Stores at approximately 2pm near the premises’ caf\u00e9<\/a>. The pungent odour was picked up almost instantly by nearby shoppers, some of whom started complaining that the smell made it hard to breathe.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed were contacted immediately by store staff <\/a>and rushed to the scene. The shop was also evacuated by staff and temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution for customer safety. A Garda spokesperson confirmed that a man, 40s, was arrested near the scene and detained at a Garda station in the city.<\/p>\n

He was later released without charge, and a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions. The Dunnes was reopened after Garda\u00ed conducted a technical examination, and is operating as usual today. Investigations are ongoing.<\/p>\n

A Garda <\/a>spokesperson said: “Garda\u00ed responded to report of an incident at a business premises in Ballyvolane in Cork city yesterday, Thursday 1st January 2026 at approximately 2pm. The premises was evacuated and the scene was technically examined. It has since been reopened.<\/p>\n

“A man (40s) was arrested near the scene and was detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 at a Garda Station in Cork city. He was released without charge and a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions. Investigations are ongoing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Customers complained that the smell made it hard to breathe 09:17, 02 Jan 2026Updated 09:24, 02 Jan 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,14641,7782,61,60],"class_list":["post-223302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cork-city","tag-gardai","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}