Seventeen hundred police officers on Scottish streets in a single evening. That is the figure the Scottish Police Federation says cannot become normal for Bonfire Night, when the public can no longer rely on the ordinary protection of its emergency services.
The disruption reached deep into everyday community life. Neil Young, chief executive of St Paul’s Youth Forum in Provanmill, said it was “too dangerous” to open the club on Thursday. Around 80 young people would normally attend, but he said it was “too challenging for people to get here with the number of rockets going off.” The community has always had a bonfire, he added, but it has started getting unsafe in recent years. “This has been an escalation that has been happening for years, and we are just very fortunate that we’ve had no fatalities yet. People are handling larger and larger explosives every year and it is going to go wrong.”
Seven people were arrested and a police van was set alight in violent flashpoints during what was Scotland’s biggest police operation since the visit of President Donald Trump last year. The vehicle was completely burned out during disturbances in Greenside Street in the Provanmill area of Glasgow, and a 16-year-old boy was arrested. It was removed from the scene as morning-after clean-up operations got under way across the city.
The human cost fell on those who serve the public. A police officer and an ambulance staff member were injured when they were attacked with fireworks while responding to a report of an injured man in Glasgow. Fire service personnel also came under attack in a number of towns while responding to calls, though no firefighters were hurt and no serious damage was caused to fire engines.
David Kennedy, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, told BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast programme: “To have 1,700 police officers out, that’s not normal, and we can’t accept it as normal. So we have to look into and see what we can do. The only way I think we do that is by relooking at what’s going on in Scotland at the moment and looking at our society to see how can we fix this.” He added: “We need to have better stop-and-search powers. We need to be able to demask these individuals on the spot and we have to make sure that they get arrested because having them reported is not stopping it, let’s be honest.” The federation, which represents rank and file officers, has called for tougher stop-and-search laws and a crackdown on youth crime.
Ch Supt David Robertson said: “Police officers, ambulance staff and firefighters are there to protect communities, not be the target of violence.” He would not be drawn on timescales for arrests, but said investigations began last night, were progressing, and that arrests would be made as soon as possible. “We have to make sure that we build really thorough cases because it’s really important that we see those strong criminal justice outcomes, and I hope that we get sentences that will act as a real deterrent,” he said, adding that robust cases would be prepared with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service using body-worn video, CCTV and helicopter footage.
Meanwhile, the burden on public services was considerable. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service received more than 1,172 calls relating to fireworks and bonfires between 17:30 and 23:30 and attended more than 767 incidents. Between 31 October and 5 November, a total of 1,024 fireworks-related calls were received, up from 833 in 2025, though there was a reduction in incidents requiring a specialist public order response. In Edinburgh, 21 dispersal orders were issued, with 13 in Glasgow. No-one was charged in relation to any breaches of Firework Control Zones, and the disturbances in Glasgow and Edinburgh took place outside those zones, where the use of pyrotechnics is banned.
Elsewhere, police and members of the public were targeted with fireworks in several areas of Edinburgh. Fireworks were thrown at members of the public in Clydebank, and fire crews were attacked in Knightswood and Castlemilk in Glasgow, Cumnock in East Ayrshire, Larkhall in South Lanarkshire, and Blackridge in West Lothian. Police received reports of youths creating a blockage in the road on Oxgangs Road North in Edinburgh at about 17:30, and the fire service attended a fire in a grassed area near houses in Murrayburn Park in Wester Hailes shortly after 19:00. In the Kirkton area of Dundee, a public order unit was deployed after more than 100 young people gathered and started a fire on the road, with reports suggesting a crowd of approximately 50 people were launching fireworks and causing disorder.
For the Scottish Government, Education Secretary Mairi McAllan said any instances of disorder or attacks on the public or on emergency services were “completely unacceptable.” She told Radio Scotland Breakfast: “Police Scotland were well prepared. Our emergency services were well prepared. The vast majority of displays went ahead without any problems, and that’s to be welcomed. But nonetheless, I would want to be absolutely unequivocal. Totally unacceptable that any disorder related to fireworks should be ongoing.”
Politicians are now split on the remedy. Scottish Conservative Justice Spokesman Stephen Kerr called for the SNP government to immediately double to two years the maximum sentence for people who attack emergency workers, while the Scottish Greens have renewed their call for a ban on the sale of fireworks to the general public. The party’s Justice Spokesperson Maggie Chapman said: “Communities shouldn’t have to put up with this.”
Amid the disorder, one young person was hurt directly. A 15-year-old was taken to hospital in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire, after lighting a firework that exploded and damaged his eye.