By Terence Dooley

British promoter and former fighter Carl Greaves has spoken about the terror that spread throughout Dublin’s Regency Hotel yesterday when gunmen dressed as Gardaí opened fire with AK-47 rifles, injuring two men and killing one.

Greaves was there with heavyweight Paul Butlin, who was due to fight Sean Turner on Friday evening; Greaves explained to Leigh Curtis of the Nottingham Post that the weigh-in descended into chaos as soon as the shots rang out.  “[I] heard this loud banging,” he said.

“I thought it was just a fight that was happening in the crowd and bottles were being thrown.  But it was bullets and everybody just ran.  People ran for the front door, I just ran for the nearest exit.  It was terrifying and all I could think about was my family.  I just ran as fast as I could and just kept going.”

He added: “We bunkered down in a pub until it was safe to return.  When we got back, there was a tent that had been put up.  Obviously there was somebody inside.  At the time, your instincts take over but the more and more I think about it, I am a lot worse now than I was earlier.”

An eyewitness told the Post that people assumed it was a terrorist attack during the early confusion.

The Belfast Telegraph today revealed that the police are hunting for a four-man gang after the attack left one man dead, and two with gunshot wounds to the stomach and thigh respectively.

The publication also disclosed that one of the men was disguised as a woman.  Subsequent reports have suggested that the man in drag was carrying a pistol and was in the crowd during the early moments of the weigh-in.

Numerous Irish outlets have speculated that it was a revenge attack prompted by a feud between warring gangs.  Taoiseach (the Irish Prime Minister) Enda Kenny echoed this viewpoint when speaking to Lesley Houston of the Belfast Telegraph, saying: “Clearly the interpretation here is that this is the work of rival criminal gangs in the Dublin area.”

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