An unprovoked assault which left a taxi driver badly injured is being treated by police as a racist attack.
The 33-year-old man was driving a black cab on Edinburgh's London Road, near the Omni Centre, about 4am today, when he was flagged down by two young men who got into the taxi.
But two other men and a woman then pulled the original passengers out of the vehicle and assaulted the driver, leaving him seriously injured.
He was later given treatment at the city's Royal Infirmary.
Police Scotland said a 34-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman have been arrested and charged with assault. They will appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court tomorrow.
Police said they are still appealing for witnesses to come forward.
Detective Constable Kevin Tait said: "This was a violent and unprovoked assault, which we are treating as racist, and which has left the victim badly injured and requiring treatment at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
"We would appeal to the males who were ejected from the taxi by the suspects to contact police on 101, and to any taxi drivers or other passers-by who may have witnessed the incident."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article