Two individuals, both in their fifties, were apprehended in relation to an inquiry into a devastating blast at an Applegreen fuel station in Creeslough, Co Donegal that led to the loss of ten lives. These men have been freed without being charged. They were taken into custody yesterday on suspicion of committing non-lethal offences against individuals, as classified by the 1997 Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.
Their detention took place at different stations in Co Donegal under the terms of the 1984 Criminal Justice Act, Section 4. The local law enforcement agency, the gardaí, will forward their case files to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Progress on the inquiry into the tragic detonation at the Creeslough building continues. This is being organised centrally by Milford Garda station, where they have set up a special operations room under the supervision of a senior garda official.
Donegal local gardaí, backed by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation of the gardaí, the Health & Safety Authority and the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, are leading the investigation. The victims included 5-year-old Shauna Flanagan and her father Robert Garwe, aged fifty, Catherine O’Donnell, 39, and her son James Monaghan, 13, James O’Flaherty, 48, Jessica Gallagher, 24, Hugh Kelly, 59, Martin McGill, 49, Martina Martin, 49 and 14 year old Leona Harper, who all tragically died in the explosion that took place in October 2022.