Officers with guns should have been sent to Aberdeen knife incident, says Police Federation

Firearm officers should have been sent to an incident involving a knife in which a man was repeatedly struck by a police car, the body representing rank and file staff has said.

Emergency services were called after reports of a man with a knife in the Seaforth Road area, near Pittodrie Stadium, in Aberdeen at around 4.50pm on Friday.

Officers, including a dog handler, were dispatched to the scene.

Police Dog Zeus, a six-year-old Belgian Malinois, was injured and taken to a vet before being released following treatment.

PD Zeus was injured during the incident in Aberdeen. Police Scotland

A 27-year-old man was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for treatment and then arrested.

He was charged with various offences, including one under the Animal and Welfare Act.

A video circulated on social media shows a police car striking the suspect twice. An unmarked vehicle can also be seen colliding with a wall close to the man.

The force confirmed that a taser was discharged during the incident and that a report had been submitted to the police watchdog.

David Kennedy, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said he believed an armed response vehicle (ARV) had not been deployed or had been deployed but was not authorised.

He told STV News: “Those officers, when they are at the scene, can act when they see they need to, but there’s a central authorisation which hadn’t taken place.

“We’ve got a concern that this was a knife incident, and what it should’ve been right away was an armed response vehicle.

“It hasn’t been deployed, or if it’s been deployed it hasn’t been authorised. This does happen regularly.”

He added: “For members of the public to see a police vehicle in this manner would be harrowing but officers will use any equipment they can to protect people and the police.

“It should have been a firearms response.”

Mr Kennedy called for a change in policy to automatically deploy an armed response to a knife incident in Scotland.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “A report on the circumstances of the incident has been sent to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner.”