Firefighters were spat on and pelted with stones by a mob of youths as they tended a fire in Dundee’s Whitfield housing estate.
The fire crew was forced to withdraw from Ormiston Crescent after the group of about a dozen youths, some of them under 10 years old, carried out the attack at around 10.15pm on Wednesday.
One large stone struck and smashed a floodlight on the front of the fire appliance as it was manoeuvring in the street, crew manager Patrick Farrell said.
The firefighters from Kingsway fire station had been called out to a bin fire and had extinguished the blaze when the mob struck.
”The group had gathered around as we put out the fire, which isn’t unusual at all,” said Mr Farrell. ”But a number of them started to throw small stones and a firefighter was spat on.
”We decided to leave and as we were turning the fire engine a youth threw a large stone which smashed a light.
”It can be quite an experience for firefighters and quite daunting to be faced with something like that. No one was injured but it was not a nice experience.
“We would always respond to fires and come out to do our best and try to provide a service.”
Station manager Bruce Farquharson said the vandals could have caused injury or even cost lives by depriving the public of an appliance which could have been required at a more serious incident.
He said: ”Had the windscreen been smashed or the driver hit by a stone then the appliance would have been unavailable for further fire calls until such time as a replacement appliance could be sourced.
”As a consequence of such actions there is the very real possibility of someone in the community losing their life if fire crews are delayed in attending an incident.”
He added the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 makes it a specific offence to assault, obstruct or hinder someone providing an emergency service or someone assisting an emergency worker in an emergency situation.
The offence carries a maximum penalty of nine months in jail, a fine of £5,000 or both.”
Mr Farquharsonadded: ”People who deal with emergencies provide an invaluable service to our society. We believe they should be able to go about their work without fear of attack or intimidation.”
Inspector Kevin Williams of Longhaugh Police Station said they had attended at the scene with a CCTV van within a couple of minutes of receiving a call.
”However the youths responsible had run off and they have not yet been traced,” he said. ”We are carrying out further CCTV inquiries and door-to-door checks and we would hope that the local community would have seen this group hanging around earlier.
”I would hope someone will come forward and help us to trace those responsible and I would urge anyone with any information to contact the police. We need the support of the community…we want to nip things like this in the bud.”
Anyone with information can contact police on 0300 111 2222.