A Scots shop owner has been branded racist after penning a rambling Facebook post claiming an "asylum seeker" tried to attack her within her premises.
Kairen Alexis Ruse, 72, who runs Blooms & Browns women's clothing store in Perth, took to Facebook to tell how an "unkempt foul smelling young man" had lunged at her in the store on South Street on Tuesday afternoon.
The shop owner claimed the man entered the shop and her dog Ted began growling and barking at the individual who became spooked and picked up a wicker chair to defend himself. Kairen then ran to the front door and screamed at him to get out of her shop.
Kairen contacted police about the incident before penning a rant on Facebook a day later. In the online post, she claimed the man was one of the city's asylum seekers - a group she felt a 'deep anger' about.
Kairen also expressed her support for comments made by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who described the arrival of asylum seekers on the United Kingdom’s southern coast as an “invasion”. The post read: "Yesterday I was alone in the shop working behind my desk, Ted sleeping and snoring at my feet. The workshop was in darkness as everyone is on holiday this week, when suddenly the door burst open and this unkempt foul smelling young man charged into the shop towards me.
"Ted went into full protection mode barking and growling at what was obviously one of Perth's asylum seekers. There are apparently 100 of these individuals staying within hotels in town centre. Ted obviously frightened him as he picked up the wicker chair and tried to fend him off shouting at the top of his voice.
"In the midst of this fracas I managed to manoeuvre around him and get to the front door which was still wide open, shouting at him to 'get out, get out of my shop now'! And thanks to Ted, he did. He ran down out onto South Street. I shut the door, sat down and wondered what the hell has happened to my country.
"I was so angry and extremely frightened at what had just happened. What was he doing in a ladies shop? What is he doing here? More importantly what was he going to do to me or Ted?
"I feel two things; a deep anger that these people feel it is their 'right' to be in this country and secondly that the Home Office, the British Government, the Scottish Government, the Conservative Party (and I have been a Conservative all my life) won't do anything to stop this invasion and Suella Braverman is right it is an invasion!"
But Kairen soon deleted the post after sparking a furious backlash from hundreds of people in the comments.
Shocked members of the public quickly slammed the post as 'racist' and 'vile'. One person said: "Blues and Browns in Perth, shop local and racist."
Another added: "Boycott ‘Blues & Browns’ in Perth, the owner is the poster child for bigoted and racist right-wing tories."
While a third wrote: "This post is vile. Whatever the circumstances of this gentleman, he is a HUMAN BEING. You've assumed he is an asylum seeker - based on what?"
And another said: “One of the most racist posts I’ve ever read. Absolutely dripping with hate.”
The Blues & Browns Facebook page has since been removed from the platform.
Kairen told the Daily Record she denies all allegations of racist comments and said she was terrified during the incident.
She said: "I wrote this in the heat of the moment after an incident which left me severely traumatised. No woman should have to go through this, regardless of where the person came from. The offending post has been removed.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We were called around 1pm on Tuesday, 1 November, to a report of a man acting in an anti-social way at a premises on South Street, Perth.
“Enquiries were carried out and it was established that no crime had taken place.”
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