8 men to appear in court this morning following major wreckage of Citywest Lidl store

Eight men will appear before a special sitting of the Central Criminal Court this morning following the looting incident that caused serious damage to a Lidl store in Citywest last night.

The eight men are due to appear before the court at 10.30am after being arrested by Gardaí following last night's incident, while another man in his 30s is currently detained at Tallaght Garda station in connection with the thefts. The eight men who are charged with various offences that include theft, burglary and trespassing are aged from 24-47.

Armed Gardaí were forced to respond to the incident after a group of ununiformed Gardaí came under attack from the looters when they first investigated the incident.

Gardaí requested military assistance from the Defence Forces to ensure that they could get to the incident, where more than 50 officers were needed to quell the situation.

A Centra store in the Jobstown area was also targeted by a smaller gang of looters, though it is understood that they were arrested shortly after that incident.

Video footage has also emerged of the digger used in the attack on Lidl attempting to smash open the shop's safe at an area nearby, with the driver of the JCB repeatedly smashing the bucket off the safe to bust a way in.

"We are aware of the very serious incident at our Fortunestown Lane store this evening," read a statement from Lidl last night.

"Given that the incident is now the subject of a criminal investigation we are not in a position to comment further at this time."

They later added; "As our store on Fortunestown Lane was closed when the incident occurred this evening, we can confirm no member of our team has been injured."