Counterterrorism police have taken over an investigation into suspected anti-Muslim violence in Edinburgh, Scotland, that left five men injured, authorities said Saturday.
The unrest comes as the United Kingdom is seeing a wave of anti-migrant and anti-Muslim sentiment, including recent riots in Northern Ireland and England.
What do we know about the attacks?
Emergency services responded late Friday to reports of “violent attacks including threats, robbery and vandalism” across the city, according to a police statement.
Local media reported the attacks began near a mosque before spreading to other areas of the city.
Footage posted to social media appeared to show a shirtless man walking along a street carrying a long weapon.
Another video seemed to show the same man on the ground shouting about “protecting the country from these Muslim bastards” while being held by a police officer.
Police said five people — two aged 22 and three others aged 24, 27, and 39 — sustained injuries.
Three of the victims required hospital treatment, but none of the injuries were life-threatening, police said.
A 36-year-old Scottish man was arrested, and authorities said there was no further threat to the public.
“Counter Terrorism Policing Scotland is investigating, supported by other specialist colleagues and local policing officers,” the statement said.
The anti-Islamophobia non-profit MEND said several of the victims were Muslims and urged police to “treat this as what the evidence indicates: Islamophobic, far-right terror.”
Leaders call for calm as community tensions rise
Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney said he was “deeply concerned” by the incidents.
Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton called for calm, saying “there is no place for racism or faith-based hate in Scotland.”
The incident follows a broader pattern of unrest across the UK, where tensions over immigration and multiculturalism remain elevated. Critics say far-right groups have been stoking anti-migrant and anti-Muslim sentiment in recent months.
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Last week, Belfast saw two nights of serious disorder after a brutal knife attack on a local man.
Video of the incident, allegedly carried out by a Sudanese asylum seeker, spread rapidly online and triggered protests that escalated into violence, with homes and vehicles set on fire.
The week before, protesters clashed with police in Southampton, southern England, over the handling of the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak, who was fatally stabbed by a British Sikh man.
The unrest comes as Reform UK, the anti-immigration populist party led by Nigel Farage, has taken a clear lead in opinion polls.
Reform is ahead of both Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s ruling Labour Party and the Conservatives, who between them have dominated British politics for more than a century.
Edited by: Louis Oelofse
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