Scottish authorities on Saturday said they charged a man in connection with attacks in Edinburgh that wounded five people, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying the suspect “appears to be motivated by anti-Muslim hatred.”
Police said officers had arrested a 36-year-old white Scottish man, and there was “no further threat to the public.”
“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,” police said late on Saturday.
Photo: AP
“A report has been submitted to the Procurator Fiscal, and the individual will appear at court in due course,” police said.
Footage posted online showed a bare-chested man, believed to be the suspect, roaming streets of the Scottish capital with a large weapon.
A police statement said they received multiple emergency calls late on Friday from people reporting “violent attacks including threats, robbery and vandalism across Edinburgh, with five men injured.”
The victims, two aged 22, and others aged 24, 27 and 39, sustained various injuries, police said.
Three were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the statement said, adding that the incident is being investigated by the counterterrorism unit and other police officers.
The Scottish Association of Mosques and the anti-Islamophobia non-profit Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) said several of the victims were Muslims.
MEND said the alleged footage of the arrested man circulating online also showed him shouting about “protecting the country” from Muslims, accompanied by expletive-filled language.
The organization urged police to “treat this as what the evidence indicates: Islamophobic, far-right terror.”
“In recent days we have seen calls for anti-migrant protests circulating online, alongside increasingly aggressive rhetoric directed at minority communities,” the mosques association said. “These developments should concern everyone, regardless of faith or background.”
The incident comes as immigration and diversity in the UK takes the spotlight, with claims that far-right agitators are fueling racist sentiment, after a number of reported high-profile incidents in the region.
The Northern Irish capital Belfast experienced two nights of disorder this month after a knife attack, allegedly perpetrated by a Sudanese refugee, was captured on camera and went viral online.
