Five police officers injured in Scotland Bonfire Night attacks ‘orchestrated by adults’
Five police officers have been injured in Edinburgh and Glasgow after youths threw petrol bombs and fireworks at them in a wave of “orchestrated” attacks.
In one of the most violent Bonfire Nights in recent years, around 50 young people gathered in the Niddrie area of Edinburgh shortly before 5pm, where they confronted riot police.
Police Scotland officers were also called to incidents in Dundee and Glasgow during what the force described as a night of “unprecedented levels of violence”.
Four officers in the capital sustained minor injuries that did not require hospital treatment, while in Glasgow a further four people, including an officer, were taken to hospital.
Assistant Chief Constable Tim Mairs, who leads the fireworks policing programme Operation Moonbeam, said there had been an “unacceptable and frankly disgusting level of disorder”.
He said the force believed that in Edinburgh, the young people involved in the violence were being actively encouraged by adults, who were co-ordinating the attacks intended to target officers.
“There were undoubtedly adults involved in orchestrating that behaviour, and supplying weapons to those young people,” he told the BBC.
“I want to be clear. This was not a spontaneous act of anti-social behaviour by young people.
“This was a concerted effort to attack police and emergency workers – and actually to attack the community of Niddrie – orchestrated by adults.”
Police are now appealing for information about the incidents, with members of the public urged to report anything they know.
Drone footage from Niddrie showed a line of police officers with riot shields standing in front of vans, as a mob of black-clad youths gathered on grass in front of them and began throwing pyrotechnics.
The police were forced to retreat as a petrol bomb hit the ground in front of them and fireworks exploded. The officers then ran at the assailants.
In Dundee, two police vehicles were struck by bricks in the Beauly Square area, while in Glasgow police received a report of about 20 youths fighting and throwing fireworks at one another in Barmulloch.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said there were nine attacks on its crews over an eight-hour period on Bonfire Night, which saw crews bombarded with fireworks and bricks.
No firefighters were injured, but a fire appliance in West Lothian had its windscreen smashed by a brick and had to be removed from service.
Humza Yousaf said the scenes witnessed on Sunday night were “thuggish” and “reckless”, calling for those responsible to face the full force of the law.
Asked whether he would consider an outright ban on the sale of fireworks in the wake of the violence, he said this was not within the Scottish Government’s powers.
“If it was, then I would absolutely consider an outright ban,” he added. “We will always consider what more the Government can do.”
