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Man
charged after suspected anti-Muslim attacks across Edinburgh
Police
Scotland arrested 36-year-old man after five people were injured, with
counter-terrorism investigators brought in
Nadeem
Badshah
Sun 21
Jun 2026 01.30 BST
Police
Scotland said a man was charged after a series of attacks in Edinburgh on
Friday night that are being treated as potential anti-Muslim hate crimes.
Counter-terrorism
officers were brought in to investigate the attacks in which five people were
injured.
A
36-year-old white Scottish man was arrested on Friday. The force added late on
Saturday night: “A 36-year-old man has been charged in connection with a number
of incidents which took place in Edinburgh on Friday, 19 June, 2026. A report
has been submitted to the Procurator Fiscal, and the individual will appear at
court in due course.”
Police
said there was no further threat to the public.
Officers
were called to the Sighthill area of the city, where two men were injured, at
about 8.50pm on Friday. They were taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary by
ambulance.
The
Scottish Association of Mosques said two worshippers were attacked in a park
after leaving the Broomhouse mosque.
Reports
then came in to police about incidents around shops in the west and north of
the city. The force said that during this period three other men were allegedly
attacked in the Telford Road and Leith Walk area.
Around
9.30pm, police equipped with Tasers confronted a suspect and, although a Taser
was not discharged, the man was detained.
Posts on
social media appeared to show a shirtless man carrying a long weapon roaming a
street and battering a restaurant door in the Scottish capital.
Another
video appeared to show the same man on the ground shouting about “protecting
the country” while being held by a police officer.
Police
said that five men, two aged 22, and others aged 24, 27 and 39, sustained a
range of injuries and three needed hospital treatment though none of the
injuries were life-threatening.
Keir
Starmer posted on X: “Absolutely appalling. No one should face violence on our
streets.
“The
suspect appears to be motivated by anti-Muslim hatred. I will not tolerate this
– he will face the full force of the law.
“My
thoughts are with those who are injured and I thank the police and the
emergency services for their response.”
Omar
Afzal, director of public affairs for the Scottish Association of Mosques, told
the Scotsman: “There is a profound sense of shock, alarm and anger within
Muslim communities across Scotland today.
“These
latest attacks are deeply disturbing. However, they do not exist in a vacuum.
For years, Muslim communities have warned about the consequences of anti-Muslim
hatred becoming normalised in public discourse. When prejudice is left
unchallenged, it creates an environment in which some individuals feel
emboldened to act on that hatred.”
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.
The
anti-Islamophobia non-profit Muslim Engagement and Development urged police to
“treat this as what the evidence indicates: Islamophobic, far-right terror”.
Assistant
chief constable Catriona Paton said: “I want to send a clear message of support
to all our communities that there is no place for racism or faith-based hate in
a Scotland which is at its best when we stand together.
“Officers
responded to multiple reports of a fast-moving sequence of events across
Edinburgh before arresting a man and public safety was our priority.
“Extensive
work is ongoing to establish all the circumstances.
“We are
being supported by counter-terrorism policing and working under the direction
of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.”
Police
closed off Leith Walk on Friday evening as the incidents unfolded.
A major
incident public portal has been set up to encourage members of the public to
submit information directly to officers.
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