The schoolgirl who died after a fatal assault in County Wexford has been named locally as eight-year-old Malikika Al Kattib.
It is being reported she was stabbed when she intervened in an attempt to protect her mother from being attacked at a house in New Ross on Sunday night.
A close relative of her mother “came across the most horrific scene” of Malikika being resuscitated, councillor John Dwyer told BBC News NI.
He said the woman told him that the “entire family are devastated” by the child’s death.
A man and a woman in their 30s were treated in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
It is understood Gardaí (Irish police) are following a definite line of inquiry.
Dwyer, an independent member of Wexford County Council, is a friend of Malikika’s relative who witnessed the aftermath of the attack and spoke to him by phone.
“The distress and the pain in the voice, it was just horrific,” the councillor said, adding it was the sort of phone call he would “never wish to hear again”.
The relative learned about the incident in the early hours of Monday and rushed to the scene on foot, he explained.
Malikika was taken to hospital in Waterford where she died from her injuries.
