Gardai have launched a probe into TikTok teenage gangs who are carrying out random attacks and posting them on social media.
The alleged assaults have taken place in the Cabra area in the last few weeks.
In January, one boy was put in an induced coma after suffering serious head injuries - and in another incident, a teenager was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver, reports thejournal.ie.
And there have been numerous other “very serious assaults”, according to Sinn Féin’s Séamas McGrattan who is on Cabra’s Local Policing Committee.
He told Dublin Live: "I haven't got a handle on why it's happening. It seems to be random and it's being driven through social media.
"The problem I see with that is today's attack has to be better than yesterday's to get a better like on social media and that's just going to lead to serious injury.
"There are four young fellas that I know of already that have ended up in hospital, some of them very serious."
A leaflet was sent also around the local Cabra area by the local policing committee warning parents about the attacks and that the footage is being uploaded to TikTok.
Gangs are using the Luas line to travel into the area and, in one incident at the Broombridge stop, dozens of teenagers were intercepted by gardai.
Cllr McGrattan said: "There are children as young as nine years of age who were there.
"There were about 50 or 60 of them there. Luckily, the gardaí were able to intercept these lads before they were able to cause any trouble."
A spokesman for An Garda Síochána told Dublin Live: “There are three Garda Districts/two Garda Divisions covering the Cabra Area.
“Gardaí in Cabra are aware of a number of public order incidents which are subsequently being posted on various social media platforms.
“Gardaí are investigating these incidents in collaboration with other Garda districts within this catchment area.
“Cabra Gardaí, together with all the other relevant agencies, will continue to proactively engage with Cabra Youth to reduce such incidents occurring.”
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