Gig ‘carnage’ as man smashes axe into bar

Members of Edinburgh-based band Bwani Junction today told how they had just finished playing to around 100 people at 12.30am at The Moorings pub on Hopetoun Road in South Queensferry on Sunday morning when the man entered the pub with a two-feet long axe and began shouting and smashing up property.

Dozens of revellers fled the bar, including band members Rory Fairweather, 18, Jack Fotheringham and Fergus Robson, both 19.

The band’s manager, Gordon Muir, 51, said: “This mad axe man burst in and started flailing an axe around, and plunged it into the bar top. He pulled it out and went off into the toilets looking for someone.

“He was in a rage about something. My concern was just to get the lads out of there. I was trying to usher them out before anyone got killed. It looked like it was going to be one of these horror movies. It was just panic all round.

“The guy was completely demented and was flying his axe around. It was carnage.”

Mr Muir, who lives in Kirkliston, said: “I didn’t see him hit anybody with the axe but he was smashing tables and glasses and he hammered the axe into the bar.

“The axe was around two feet long with a wooden handle and a big heavy blade on it. It was a scary thing to see flashing around your head.”

Mr Fairweather, a singer in the band who lives in Bruntsfield, said: “I saw the three bouncers sprinting through the bar. This guy had come into the bar with a hatchet, screaming and shouting.

Pub licensee Arne Fredriksen, 53, said: “The man was nothing to do with the pub and was just a person who came in for a pint. He just kicked off and spoiled what had been a really good night.”

The indie rock band said they later picked up a man they believed could have been injured during the incident and took him to his hotel.

They noticed a crying man, thought to be in his 20s, outside clutching his shoulder.

Mr Fairweather said: “I think he had broken his collar bone. We got him in the van and were going to take him to the hospital but he said he wanted to go back to the hotel where he was staying.”

Resident David Garmany, 41, said: “I’m shocked that a thing like this could happen.”

Police said a woman had been taken to hospital with a twisted ankle in an unrelated incident.

A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Police confirmed that a 26-year-old male had been arrested in relation to the incident.

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