Two injured following shooting in The Dubliner bar in Reykjavik, Iceland

On Sunday evening, a man entered the popular venue, located in the Hafnarstraeti 4 district, and fired a shot which injured two individuals.

One person received a head wound whilst another required medical attention for a hearing related injury. The shot is believed to have ricocheted off the wall by the main bar as revellers enjoyed a night out, before the man fled the scene.

Police began an immediate investigation, dispatching a large team including special forces and paramedics. Following the incident, a firearm was found and the Reykjavík Capital Area Police Department say they are still looking for the shooter.

The Dubliner is, of course, decorated to look like Ireland and is extremely well frequented by both tourists and locals. It is considered an energetic place in Iceland for live Irish music, dancing and Guinness.

Iceland is considered to be one of the safest countries in the world to live in, with very low crime and murder rates. The country has one of the lowest murder rates in Europe.

The rate of violent assaults has increased slightly over the past decade however, but it is still low by European standards.

In recent years, a number of brutal murders linked to organized crime have shocked the otherwise peaceful country.

In February 2021, a man was gunned down in a hail of bullets outside his home in a neighbourhood of the capital Reykjavik, in a murder that shocked the nation. The killing was linked to organised crime and was part of four gangland style murders that took place in the space of 12 months.

"Criminal groups in Iceland are becoming more organised. They have more ties to international groups than what we've seen before, which may be a challenge for our police force,” said leading criminologist, Margret Valdimarsdottir.

Like Ireland, Iceland is one of the rare countries in the world where police are not armed in their daily duties, although certain patrol cars have been equipped with handguns in special safes since late 2015 after the attacks by far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik in Norway.

Only a small number of police officers — the Viking Squad — are permanently armed with semi-automatic weapons as well as bulletproof vests and ballistic shields.

The squad assists the police when weapons are reported, with the number of such incidents rocketing almost six-fold in the past eight years.