A top fire chief has warned that attacks on firefighters during bonfire season will not be tolerated.

Assistant Chief Officer (ACO) Lewis Ramsay hit out after crews were targeted by missiles and fireworks last year.

He said: "These firefighters are your father, mother, brother or sister - someone's family."

Teams across Edinburgh and Bathgate, West Lothian, in particular were targeted several times in one night.

Firefighters in the Capital needed police protection when they attended unorganised bonfires. Officers had to escort the crew to extinguish the flames.

Fortunately, no injuries were sustained by the firefighters and the fire engines were undamaged.

The attacks came on the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service's busiest night of the year.

Firefighters across the country responded to 330 unofficial bonfires on November 5, 2017, while Operations Control dealt with hundreds of calls.

ACO Ramsay, the SFRS's director of response and resilience, 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 beggars belief when I hear that they have either been physically assaulted or verbally abused when trying to assist their communities.

"I would like to take this opportunity to stress once again that this will not be tolerated because our firefighters absolutely do not deserve to be met with such behaviour."

Latest stats from 20016/2017 show 61 firefighters were involved in incidents where they were physically or verbally abused or had objects thrown at the fire engines - causing injuries to seven staff.

ACO Ramsay warned that such criminal action would be taken extremely seriously and vowed to work with police partners to ensure those responsible are identified and held to account.

He said: "Attacks on emergency responders are completely unacceptable and I am sure the public would be outraged by incidents where their firefighters have been targeted while working to protect people and property.

"This type of behaviour not only prevents our crews from bringing any emergency to a safe and swift conclusion but it can impact on our emergency service colleagues including the police when they have to escort us at the scene.

"This cannot be condoned."