Ayrshire's fire chief has condemned attacks on his firefighters and warned it will not be tolerated.

Senior officer James Scott's warning comes after officers were subjected to threats in Stevenston as well as attacks in Ardrossan.

Mr Scott has vowed to work with police to crack down on any disorder.

He said: "Our firefighters' main purpose is to save lives. You can rest assured that they will always be there and standing on the front line to help at times of emergency.

"It therefore frustrating and disappointing when I hear that they have either been physically assaulted or verbally abused when trying to assist their communities.

"This is often down to a very small minority of individuals within those communities."

He added: "I would like to take this opportunity to stress once again - as I have done in the past - that this will not be tolerated because our firefighters do not deserve to be met with such behaviour.

"We will identify those responsible and we will pass that intelligence to our police partners which can result in a variety of consequences such as affecting future employment prospects due to having a criminal record."