Scottish counter-terrorism police probe suspected anti-Muslim attacks in Edinburgh after five injured

LONDON - Police in Scotland said on June 20 that counter-terrorism officers were investigating a number of “violent attacks” the previous evening in Edinburgh that injured five men in suspected anti-Muslim incidents.

Police Scotland said a 36-year-old white Scottish man had been arrested and that there was no further threat to the public.

Footage posted online showed a bare-chested man – purportedly the suspect – roaming streets of the Scottish capital with a large weapon.

“Counter Terrorism Policing Scotland is investigating, supported by other specialist colleagues and local policing officers,” police said in a statement.

It added officers had received multiple emergency calls late on June 19 from people reporting “violent attacks including threats, robbery and vandalism across Edinburgh, with five men injured”.

The victims – two aged 22, and others aged 24, 27, and 39 – sustained various injuries and three required hospital treatment, but none of the injuries were life threatening, according to police.

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney said he was “deeply concerned” by the incidents. “There is no place for violence, racism or intolerance in our country,” he added on X.

Both the Scottish Association of Mosques and the anti-Islamophobia non-profit Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) said several of the victims were Muslims.

MEND noted the alleged footage of the arrested man circulating online also showed him shouting about “protecting the country” from Muslims, accompanied by expletive-filled language.

MEND urged police to “treat this as what the evidence indicates: Islamophobic, far-right terror”.

The incident comes with tensions heightened across the UK over immigration and diversity, amid claims far-right agitators are fuelling racist sentiment after a number of high-profile incidents.

The Northern Irish capital Belfast saw two nights of serious disorder last week after a knife attack, allegedly perpetrated by a Sudanese refugee, was captured on camera and went viral online.

There were also violent skirmishes between protesters and police the previous week in Southampton, southern England, over the handling of the murder of young white student Henry Nowak by a British Sikh man.

Detailing Friday night’s incidents, Police Scotland said two men were initially injured in Sighthill, a west Edinburgh suburb, and taken to hospital by ambulance.

The BBC said it understood the attacks began near a mosque.

Three other men were subsequently attacked elsewhere, suffering different injuries, before officers confronted and arrested the suspect, according to police.

“The individual remains in custody and enquiries continue,” Police Scotland said.

Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton called the events “shocking”, adding that “there is no place for racism or faith-based hate in Scotland”. AFP