Five men were injured in Edinburgh after a bare-chested man with a large weapon moved through the city on Friday night, prompting a rapid Police Scotland response. The first call came at about 20:50, and the case quickly widened across several locations.
Two men were hurt close to the Broomhouse mosque in the west of the city, and three other men were attacked on Telford Road and Leith Walk. Police said none of the injuries were believed to be life-threatening, even as the arrests and investigation moved quickly.
Catriona Paton and Police Scotland
Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton said there was "no place for racism or faith-based hate in Scotland". Police Scotland said counter terrorism officers joined local colleagues in the investigation, a sign that officers were treating the sequence as more than a single isolated assault.
Two of the injured men were aged 22. The others were 24, 27 and 39, and the first victims were taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after the opening attack near the mosque.
Leith Walk footage
Footage posted on social media appeared to show the same man vandalising a petrol station and battering the door of a pizzeria on Leith Walk. Members of the public were seen running away as he approached Origano, while staff closed the electronic shutters as he repeatedly struck the door panes with the weapon. A man with a weapon also approached a car that had stopped at a junction nearby.
At the BP petrol station on Ferry Road, CCTV showed him beside a black vehicle with its windscreen smashed. He entered the kiosk, wandered around several times, pushed multiple shelves over and scattered items on the floor. At the Shell petrol station on Telford Road, footage showed a taxi with its windows smashed, with broken glass and a hand axe on the seat.
MEND Scotland victims
MEND Scotland said several of the victims were from the Muslim community. That detail gives the injuries a clear community impact, not just a public-order one: the violence spread across the west of Edinburgh and into Leith Walk in one evening, and police arrested a 36-year-old white man as the inquiry continued.
The remaining question is straightforward and still important: what motivated the attack pattern seen on Friday night, and what charges, if any, follow from the material police have already gathered.
