The body of the suspected international hitman who died in a road accident while being driven on a murder mission in Limerick last Monday was handed over to undertakers yesterday, Monday, after an autopsy at University Hospital Limerick.

Limerick coroner John McNamara will convene an inquest at a later date.

The dead man, Axel Liebsch Morales, aged 33, was armed and wearing a balaclava when his accomplice drove into two other cars on the Newcastle West/Abbeyfeale N21 road.

The gunman died at the scene.

Both men carried Swedish passports, and the gunman originally came from South America.

A phone satnav recovered from the scene of the collision showed they were en route to Rathkeale, where the intended target lived.

The driver fled the scene.

Gardaí suspect he has been helped evade arrest by the group who commissioned the gun attack.

Meanwhile, the feud which has raged in Rathkeale has escalated to the town’s transient Traveller population with a vicious knife attack on a girl attending a wedding abroad.

She received major face injuries.

'Vendetta' 

A local source who works closely with Travellers in Rathkeale said the feud, which erupted after a violent incident in the past three years and for which a man is currently serving a jail sentence, has gone to a level not witnessed previously. The source said: 

There is a lot of talk of revenge, and this is an indication of the scale of the vendetta. 

“Now, it has spread to the transient Rathkeale Travellers.

“These families move around working in various parts of Europe, and come back every December and January when the population doubles to about 4,000.

“Up to now, this vendetta has seen repeated firebomb attacks on the homes of the family and relatives of the man serving a jail sentence.

“In one attack, shots were fired at a caravan where a young child was sleeping.

“Members of the family waging the attacks have said nobody is safe, and that includes women and children, and they have also said they will go after the other family no matter where they are.

“Most of the family being targeted are away working in Europe,” the source added.

Driver 'had help from people with local knowledge'

As the search continues for the driver involved in last Monday night’s collision, gardaí are convinced he made contact with those who hired the hitman as he was able to leave the wider area within a short period.

A source said: “The fact he went wrong in his directions even with a satnav showed he did not know anything about his whereabouts. 

"So the fact he went to ground so quickly meant he had assistance from people with local knowledge of the main roads and byways.”