Scotland Investigates 'Violent' Attacks in Edinburgh Targeting Muslims

Counterterrorism police in Scotland are investigating a number of "violent" attacks in Edinburgh that appeared to target Muslim people.

Five men — two aged 22, and others aged 24, 27, and 39 — sustained various injuries during the attacks in the city's north and west, with three requiring hospital treatment.

None of the injuries were life threatening, according to police.

Police said a 36-year-old white Scottish man had been arrested and remained in custody.

Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton called the events "shocking".

Footage posted online showed a bare-chested man — purportedly the suspect — roaming streets of the Scottish capital with a large weapon.

"Counter Terrorism Policing Scotland is investigating, supported by other specialist colleagues and local policing officers," police said in a statement.

It added officers had received multiple emergency calls on Friday night local time from people reporting "violent attacks including threats, robbery and vandalism across Edinburgh".

Both the Scottish Association of Mosques and the anti-Islamophobia non-profit Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) said several of the victims were Muslim and that two of the injured men were attacked after attending prayers at their local mosque.

MEND noted the alleged footage of the arrested man circulating online also showed him shouting about "protecting the country", accompanied by expletive-filled language.

MEND urged police to "treat this as what the evidence indicates: Islamophobic, far-right terror".

The Muslim Council of Britain said that the Muslim community was "rightly nervous and worried".

It said the violence was "a direct consequence of political rhetoric that demonises entire communities".

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 wrote on social media.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions across the UK over immigration and diversity, amid claims far-right agitators are fuelling racist sentiment after a number of high-profile incidents.

The Northern Irish capital Belfast saw two nights of serious disorder last week after a knife attack, allegedly perpetrated by a Sudanese refugee, was captured on camera and went viral online.

There were also violent skirmishes between protesters and police the previous week in Southampton in southern England, over the handling of the murder of young white student Henry Nowak by a British Sikh man.