Police charge man with attempted murder in Edinburgh attacks

Lewis Hawkes, 36, appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after police said he was arrested following a fast-moving series of attacks across the west of the city and Leith on Friday, 19 June 2026. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said five attempted murder charges, along with assault, robbery, two counts of breach of the peace and two counts of culpable and reckless conduct, are all aggravated by reason of having a terrorist connection.

In policing terms, that designation moves the case beyond a routine violent crime inquiry and into the hands of Counter Terrorism Policing Scotland, working alongside local officers. Police said the incidents are suspected to have had an anti-Muslim motivation, which is why detectives are examining both the sequence of assaults and the alleged motive behind them.

The first report came from Sighthill at about 8.50pm, where two men were injured. Further reports followed from Telford Road and Leith Walk, and around 9.30pm officers confronted the suspect with Taser-equipped police present before detaining him. Police Scotland said five men were injured in total, two aged 22, one aged 24, one aged 27 and one aged 39. Three needed hospital treatment, but none of the injuries was life-threatening, and police said there was no further threat to the public.

Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton described the case as a shocking attack and said there was no place for racism or faith-based hate in Scotland. She urged anyone with information to use the Major Incident Police Portal, which police opened for public submissions linked to the investigation.

The political response was swift. Keir Starmer said the suspect appeared to have been motivated by anti-Muslim hatred and would face the full force of the law. John Swinney also condemned the violence, saying there was no place for racism or intolerance in Scotland. The charges now place the case at the intersection of public order, hate crime and counterterror policing, with investigators treating motive as central to the allegations before the court.