Seven arrested after Bonfire Night disorder in Glasgow and across Scotland
Seven people have been arrested in Glasgow after fireworks-related disorder in parts of Scotland on Bonfire Night, the 5 November celebration.
On Greenside Street, officers and ambulance crews were called shortly before 8pm to reports of an injured man. The Guardian reported that police and ambulance crews there were targeted with fireworks, and that a police vehicle was set alight and seriously damaged. A police officer and an ambulance staff member sustained minor injuries.
The disorder was not confined to one street. Fire crews were attacked in Knightswood and Castlemilk in Glasgow, and in Cumnock in Ayrshire, Larkhall in South Lanarkshire and Blackridge in West Lothian. Fireworks were thrown at members of the public in Clydebank. In Edinburgh, firefighters withdrew from bin fires in the south of the city after facing antisocial behaviour, while police in other areas of the city were targeted with fireworks. Police also attended the Kirkton area of Dundee after reports of a large group gathering and setting illegal fires.
The scale of calls to emergency services was also large. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service received more than 800 calls about fireworks and bonfires between 5:30pm and 11:30pm on 5 November. Police Scotland, the country's national police force, received 1,024 fireworks-related calls between Halloween and 5 November, up from 833 in 2025.
Police Scotland ran its response as Operation Moonbeam, a policing effort aimed at fireworks-related violence and disorder during the Bonfire Night period. STV News reported that the force called in help from forces in England and Wales, with officers from Avon and Somerset, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and South Wales expected on Scotland's streets. BBC News had earlier reported that as many as 1,700 officers could be deployed on and around 5 November. According to the Guardian, the deployment was the largest number of officers Police Scotland had used to deal with disorder since the visit of US President Donald Trump to Aberdeenshire in 2025.
Before the night, police seized 350kg of fireworks from an address in the Penilee area of Glasgow on Tuesday. BBC News reported that the fireworks were worth about £12,000.
