Coronavirus conspiracy theorists attempted to perform a citizen's arrest on a policeman during a bizarre by-election standoff.
Candidate Dolores Cahill ranted about coronavirus while she was haranguing Sergeant Hugh Shovlin outside a polling station in Dublin, Ireland, on Friday.
The encounter was caught on camera and viewers were left in stitches when Professor Cahill asked for a car to take Sgt Shovlin to the police station.
The Garda officer has been praised for remaining calm and even correcting Professor Cahill when she repeatedly misspelt his name, telling her there was 'no e' in it.
The spat erupted after Sgt Shovlin blocked the candidate from entering the Dublin Bay South by-election centre without a mask on, the Irish Mirror reports.
The University College Dublin (UCD) lecturer obtained just 169 first-preference votes before being eliminated on the third count in the race which was won by Ivana Bacik for Labour.
A video of her encounter with Sgt Shovlin, who led the unit stationed at the polling centre, went viral on Friday.
In the clip she asks viewers to report the officer for 'restricting her from entering into the electoral process as an election candidate'.
When she spells out his name as 'Hugh Shovelin', the policeman leans forward and tells the camera 'no e'.
She then goes on to warn the Sergeant that he will become responsible for a recall of the by-election because of his actions.
After a string of questions to the officer, she finally announces that she will be making a 'citizen's arrest'.
Professor Cahill said: "I am now informing you that you are committing a crime, interfering with the electoral process and impersonating a member of the Garda.
"I am saying to you that you are now under arrest."
Professor Cahill warned the policeman that he would suffer the cost of her not being elected - and then began to rant about the coronavirus vaccine.
She said: "I am trying to put the information out that these injections are causing death."
The candidate told the officer she knew of care home residents and women whose unborn babies had died after receiving vaccine, although she provided no evidence to support this.
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She then asked someone near her to 'get the car' so she could take the officer to the police station.
"I am making a citizen's arrest, can you come with me? You are committing a crime," she said.
Professor Cahill reached out to grab the Sergeant, prompting him to tell her 'don't touch me'.
She then once again alleged he was committing a crime and asked him to come with her to the station, with the officer replying 'no'.
Seconds later Sgt Shovlin told her to keep her hands off him after she said 'I'm afraid I'm going to touch you now, I'm making a citizen's arrest please come with me'.
When Professor Cahill warned him that refusal to be arrested was a crime, the Sergeant said 'excellent'.
A tweet from the official Garda Twitter account said it had been a 'long day' for Sgt Shovlin and his colleagues.
The tweet stated: "An early start and long day for Sgt Hugh with Gardaí Stephen & Anthony from Donnybrook Station - on duty today at the Dublin Bay South by-election Count Centre in the RDS."
Professor Cahill previously claimed 'globalists' wanted everyone to wear masks because 'oxygen-deprived people are easy to manipulate', according to the Irish Times.
The newspaper also reported that Professor Cahill had stopped teaching any courses at UCD's school of medicine, although the university would not confirm if this was because of her Covid conspiracy theories.
