A nine-year-old girl and her mother were threatened with being thrown into a canal by an aggressive man during a frightening encounter.
The incident occurred along Edinburgh’s Union Canal path at Meggetland as the pair were cycling home from football training last Thursday evening.
The man, described as being in his 50s or 60s, initially blocked the young girl’s path before making violent threats towards both her and her mother.
The young girl described the terrifying encounter to BBC Scotland News, saying the man deliberately stepped into her path and accused her of cycling too fast.
“He was eating a packet of Walkers cheese and onion crisps and he wasn’t blinking,” she recalled.
“Then he said the ‘F word’ and I’m going to throw you into the canal. I was petrified.”
The schoolgirl described the man as having “big bulgy hazel eyes, a bald head and was huge.
“I thought he was literally going to pick me up and throw me into the canal.”
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General view of Union Canal in Edinburgh
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She was so frightened she could only respond with “OK”.
When the girl’s 44-year-old mother caught up with them, the man escalated his threats to include them both.
The mother noticed he matched the description of a previous “canal pusher” from 2022 and confronted him about it.
“He got even more angry and puffed up a bit more and looked like he was actually going to chuck me in and my daughter,” she told BBC Scotland News.
The canal extends for a number of miles
Google maps
“In that moment I realised actually I’m in big trouble potentially and I need to get away. It was very scary.”
The pair managed to defuse the situation by agreeing to walk instead of cycle, slowly edging away from the man.
Police Scotland’s Inspector Keith Forrester confirmed they are investigating the incident involving the nine-year-old.
He said police were “aware of concerns in the community following reports recently of assaults and threatening behaviour on footpaths along the Union Canal in the Edinburgh area.”
Community policing teams have increased their presence with “additional, high visibility patrols of the area.”
Police are currently reviewing CCTV footage from the area as part of their investigation.
While the mother was attempting to contact police, a runner and another cyclist reported they too had been threatened by the same man.
Authorities have stressed this incident is not connected to the canal-pushing cases from 2022.
