Counterterrorism police have taken over the investigation into suspected anti-Muslim violence in Edinburgh, Scotland, that left five people injured, officials said Saturday.
The unrest comes as the United Kingdom is seeing a wave of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment, including recent riots in Northern Ireland and England.
What do we know about the attacks?
According to a police statement, emergency services responded to reports of “violent attacks including threats, robberies and vandalism” across the city late Friday night.
Local media reported that the attacks began near a mosque before spreading to other areas of the city.
Footage posted on social media shows a shirtless man walking down the street carrying a long weapon.
Another video shows the same man shouting about “protecting the country from these Muslim bastards” while being held by a police officer on the ground.
Police said five people – two aged 22 and three others aged 24, 27 and 39 – were injured.
Police said three of the victims required hospital treatment, but none of the injuries were life-threatening.
A 36-year-old white Scottish man was arrested, and authorities said there was no further threat to the public.
“Counter Terrorism Policing Scotland is investigating in collaboration with other specialist partners and local police officers,” the statement said.
Anti-Islamophobia nonprofit MEND said many of the victims were Muslim and urged police to “treat this as what the evidence indicates: Islamophobic, far-right terror.”
Leaders call for peace as community tensions rise
Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney said he was “deeply concerned” by the incidents.
Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Patten called for calm, saying, “There is no place for racism or faith-based hatred in Scotland.”
The incident follows a wider pattern of unrest across Britain, where tensions have risen over immigration and multiculturalism. Critics say far-right groups have been stoking anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment in recent months.
Last week, Belfast saw two nights of serious chaos following a brutal knife attack on a local man.
Video of the incident, reportedly taken by a Sudanese asylum seeker, quickly spread online and sparked protests that turned into violence, with homes and vehicles set on fire.
A week ago, protesters clashed with police
In relation to the handling of the murder of Henry Novak, an 18-year-old student in Southampton, southern England, who was 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.
The reform is ahead of both Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s ruling Labor Party and the Conservatives, who have dominated British politics for more than a century.
Edited by: Louis Olofse
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