Niddrie e-biker echoes 'extreme violence and disorder' – then flees a copper mid-interview

Bonfire Night pieces to camera are meant to be solemn. This one in Niddrie, Edinburgh, turned into a Scot Squad out-take.

Freelance journalist Davy Shanks was filming ahead of possible fireworks disorder on 5 November 2026, The National reports. He began: “Two years ago tonight, this area in Niddrie in Edinburgh was the scene of extreme violence and disorder.”

Cue a masked man on an electric bike, who rolled into shot and shouted back: “Extreme violence and disorder!” – then asked him to “put this on the news”, according to Edinburgh Live and the Daily Record.

Real photo: Niddrie Mill Grove, Edinburgh (8 January 2026) – not the exact spot in the clip. Photo: Richard Webb / Geograph / CC BY-SA 2.0 (via Wikimedia Commons).

Shanks asked if people were going to behave. The rider was reassuring: “No, I think everything will be sound, no bother, no nothing… I don’t think anybody’s planning to do anything bad.”

AI illustration – the unscheduled guest star. Not the real journalist or rider.

Before the next question, a police officer appeared. Mid-sentence the rider went “Oh, mate, I’ve –” and scarpered. The copper tried a foot chase, ended up breathless in the middle of the road, and watched the e-bike tear the correct way round a roundabout and vanish – a detail that delighted commenters almost as much as the interview itself.

AI illustration – spot Gaz, our gorilla, hiding somewhere in this picture.

The clip rocketed past 900,000 views across Shanks’s accounts, with viewers comparing it to Scot Squad. Police Scotland, meanwhile, praised a drop in serious Bonfire Night disorder nationally, even as fireworks call-outs elsewhere stayed busy.

Reported by The National (Laura Pollock, 6–7 Nov 2026), with Edinburgh Live and the Daily Record (Fionnuala Boyle / Lee Dalgetty).