Three young children were among five people injured in a knife attack in Dublin on Thursday that sparked a night of rioting rarely seen before in the Irish capital. Police blamed far-right agitators for starting the violence after a small group of anti-immigrant protesters arrived at the scene of the stabbing beside the main thoroughfare of O'Connell Street and clashed with police.

A five-year-old girl received emergency treatment after sustaining serious injuries in the stabbing. A man in his late 40s, also being treated for serious injuries, was arrested by police who said they were not looking for any other suspect. Ireland's police chief said 34 people had been arrested over the rioting.

It took officers several hours to regain control after the crowd grew to around 200 to 300 people. A double decker bus, tram and police car were burned out, public transport shut down with people urged to stay away from large parts of the city.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday that the protesters who battled police and looted shops were motivated by "hate."

"Those involved brought shame on Dublin, brought shame on Ireland and brought shame on their families and themselves," Varadkar said.

Irish police guarded looted stores and firefighters cooled down smouldering vehicles in the heart of Dublin's city center early on Friday. Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said: "What we saw last night was an extraordinary outbreak of violence. These are scenes that we have not seen in decades."

Ireland's Prime Minister pledged to bring in new laws against hatred. "We will pass new laws in the coming weeks to enable the Gardai (police) to make better use of the CCTV evidence they collected, and also we will modernize our laws against incitement to hatred and hatred in general," Varadkar added. "I think it's now very obvious to anyone who might have doubted us that our incitement to hatred legislation is just not up to date. It's not up to date for the social media age. And we need that legislation through within a matter of weeks."

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Dublin Fire Brigade said firefighters continued to damp down a smouldering tram on O'Connell Street on Friday morning and make the scene safe. Public transport resumed, but with restrictions in the area. Barricades were still up across some streets and police stood guard outside a Foot Locker store with broken windows that was looted during the riot. The front of a Holiday Inn hotel that was also targeted was boarded up.

Police said on Thursday that they have not ruled out any motive, including whether it could be terror-related. They would not comment on the nationality of the detained man. 

There are no far-right parties or politicians elected to parliament, but small anti-immigrant protests have grown in the last year. The government is reviewing security around parliament after a recent protest trapped lawmakers inside.

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