POLICE Scotland remained silent for more than 17 hours after “race riots” on the streets of Glasgow.
The force issued no formal statement and provided the public with no information about the number of arrests, any injuries, or the extent of their operation after disorder broke out at around 7pm on Tuesday evening.
Police were deployed to Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Ayr amid violent disorder which allegedly saw people attacked based on the colour of their skin.
Hundreds of people gathered in Glasgow, many of them masked men, to call for an 'end to mass immigration' following a stabbing attack in Belfast pic.twitter.com/fDQnDhfQtl
— The National (@ScotNational) June 9, 2026
Video shared online appears to show people from ethnic minorities being targeted in central Glasgow around the St Enoch shopping centre and on the Clyde waterfront. Further video showed hundreds of people, many wearing all black and balaclavas, waving Union flags and singing Rule Britannia.
However, Police Scotland provided no clarity to the public or press about what took place, despite multiple approaches from various media outlets, for more than 17 hours. Glasgow City Council also issued no statement.
In contrast, Northern Irish Chief Constable Jon Boutcher briefed reporters on the status of the investigation in a press conference alongside Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill, deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, and Justice Minister Naomi Long at a press conference at Stormont on Tuesday.
The UK Government's Northern Ireland Secretary, Hilary Benn, on Wednesday held a press conference to address the incidents.
Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander, like Police Scotland, has so far made no comment on the outbreaks of violence.
First Minister John Swinney, in a statement on Wednesday, said that “racism, hatred and intimidation have no place in Scotland” and said the country “must stand against it” .
The Scottish Greens said that there must be a rejection of "far-right race riots” across Scotland.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar told the Press Association that worshippers in Glasgow Central Mosque had to be locked in the building, as marchers appeared to be heading towards the building.
The Scottish Labour leader, who is also a Glasgow MSP, added that many of those marching in the city had been clad in balaclavas and black hoodies, saying their behaviour was “intimidating” to passers-by “particularly those from certain minority backgrounds”.
Scottish Green co-leader Ross Greer told the BBC on Wednesday: "From what I heard from people in Glasgow yesterday, you had grown men walking down Buchanan Street screaming at anyone who wasn’t white, including children who were not white, screaming at them, ‘send them home’.
“So scumbag would be the word that I would use to describe them."
The disorder in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK came after a violent attack in Belfast, video of which was shared online, allegedly showed a Sudanese man attacking a man.
He has appeared in court charged with the attack, with the 44-year-old victim Stephen Ogilvie said to have lost an eye as a result.
Far-right agitator Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – known as Tommy Robinson – had shared a call for his supporters to demonstrate on the streets across the UK from 7pm on Tuesday.
