SCOTTISH police officers were attacked by quad bike riders amid chaos on Bonfire Night, a police chief has said.
Police Chief Superintendent Mark Sutherland suggested the use of dispersal orders, which allow officers to break up groups of people causing trouble in certain streets.
It comes as a firefighting chief said that crews in Glasgow had been rushed to 54 separate incidents on November 5.
Speaking on Thursday as part of a Bonfire Night debrief, Sutherland, the divisional commander for Greater Glasgow, pointed out that the city “fared well this year” with “excellent community engagement".
However, he warned: “We had fairly significant levels of disorder in the east end of Glasgow, in Drumchapel and Maryhill.
“Officers were attacked by individuals on quad bikes within Maryhill.”
Responding to a question about what could be improved, Sutherland said there might be interest in the use of dispersal orders and exclusion orders next year, which are available to the council.
He said dispersal orders were used in some areas of Scotland but not in Glasgow where there was a focus on community engagement and education to ensure neighbourhoods were safe.
He told the Safe Glasgow Partnership meeting: “Where we have seen serious disorder over the years dispersal and exclusion zones remain a viable tactic that will be worthy of further discussion nearer the time.”
Scottish Fire and Rescue Area Commander David Murdoch said there was really good partnership working over the fireworks weekend, with one attack on firefighters.
He pointed out crews attended seven incidents on November 4, 54 on November 5, and 25 on November 6 – according to provisional figures yet to be verified.
Murdoch said: “Overall we managed to have as safe as possible night. While there was some amount of disruption and civil disturbance from our point of view we worked well to keep our crews safe in the community as much as possible.”
He added: “Glasgow pulled together well to reduce where possible any disruption and people had a safe night.”
Staff from the council, Scottish Fire and Rescue, and Police Scotland were based in the council’s hi-tech operations centre on November 4 and 5 to co-ordinate responses this year.
It was the first time that all the services involved in the Bonfire Night response were physically based together in the city operations centre.
