Police investigating Bonfire Night 'mobbing and rioting'

Police are investigating "mobbing and rioting" on Bonfire Night in Glasgow.

Officers are working to identify those involved in disturbances in Pollokshields on 5 November.

Two people have already been arrested, including a man alleged to have distributed fireworks from his car.

The local MP, Glasgow South West MP Zubir Ahmed, called the behaviour "criminality and chaos" during an emergency public meeting to discuss the disorder.

A Police Scotland representative who was on duty on the night of the disorder said officers had withdrawn and riot police were kept on standby to avoid a "large-scale riot".

A fireworks ban intended for the area failed to go ahead due to a council error.

Pollokshields was due to get the city's first Fireworks Control Zone (FCZ), after serious firework-related anti-social behaviour.

It would have been Scotland's second designated control zone after the Scottish government gave councils new powers in 2022 following riots in Dundee.

A night of explosions in Pollokshields on Bonfire Night followed more than two weeks of escalating anti-social behaviour involving fireworks.

Police said a car was set alight on Herriet Street by a firework exploding under it late on Tuesday evening.

It was revealed at the meeting that officers were withdrawn from the area after they "came under attack" a short time later and a firework was set off under a police vehicle.

Riot police were deployed to the area as part of Operation Moonbeam, but were kept in a reserved position while police monitored the area via three CCTV cameras.

A bonfire made from fly-tipped rubbish, fencing and bins was lit on a mini roundabout and fireworks were thrown into it until the early hours of the morning.

Residents at the meeting said they were angry emergency services did not stop it, but were told it was not deemed "to be a risk to the wider public".

"The fire service felt that if they were deployed they would become the target and so they would need police protection, at which point the police would become the target," the police representative said.

"Nobody wants fireworks being set off, however had we deployed to try and quell that, there was every possibility that it could have ended up in a large scale riot with numerous persons on the street, going on for a number of hours and potentially with national media attention in relation to disorder and scenes that we've seen in Edinburgh."

He added that the police strategy was an attempt "to avoid behaviour designed to draw police in and attack them".

"Please be assured that we are taking it very seriously and we are working as hard as we can to try and bring these offenders to justice.

"Mobbing and rioting is a very serious charge so hopefully that will deter anybody next year."

Residents speaking at the meeting complained that there had not been police patrols before the worst disorder started. They felt they had been left as targets.

"It's too dangerous for your officers to go where we live, where we have to get home from work, where we lock ourselves in," one said.

"Your answer to us seems to be 'suck it up', and I just find that disappointing."

One resident brought pieces of metal shrapnel he had found from fireworks he believed to be illegal.

Another man said: "If you've got riot shields and the rest of it, we'd welcome that.

"We try and get home from work, we try and get out and just have a normal life, and we get targeted with fireworks fired at us."

Residents were told officers were working around the clock to review "hours and hours" of video footage.

One man and a juvenile were arrested on the night and a further three suspects have already been identified.

Police believe the majority of culprits were adults - mostly from the local area - and many of the fireworks were bought online and hidden in cars and flats.

Ameen Mohammed, chairman of Pollokshields Community Council, said there had been a crackdown on cash and carry stores where youths used to buy industrial-grade fireworks.

"I think in recent years with social media, especially Instagram, people can actually get an UberEats-type delivery of fireworks sent to their house – that's a difficult thing to deal with," he said.

Three local councillors attended the meeting - Zen Gani, Norman MacLeod and Jon Molyneux - but the city council was not able to provide an officer to address the meeting at short notice.

Cllr Molyneux, who is campaigning for fireworks to be banned across the whole city to avoid stigmatising some areas, said he hoped a FCZ next year would "make it unambiguous what is an offence and will help people come forward to report disorder".

He added: "It would hopefully concentrate the police's response a bit more rather than being spread out... if there are more isolated bits of disorder."

Dr Ahmed said he would support a private member's bill from Luton North MP Sarah Owen calling for restrictions on the sale of fireworks.

In a social media post, Dr Ahmed thanked the police for their "constructive updates" on the "criminality and chaos on Bonfire Night".

"We will work to ensure this level of vandalism never returns to our streets," he added.