Minicab driver ambushed at knifepoint in kidnap attempt

TWO men attempted to kidnap an Edinburgh minicab driver at knifepoint before speeding off in his car – just weeks after his colleague had also been a victim of carjacking.

The driver was ambushed in broad daylight after being called to a pick-up in Lochend Avenue at the weekend. He was threatened with the knife before the men attempted to force him into the boot of his Skoda Octavia. The driver managed to break free before the robbers drove off. The car was later found abandoned.

It came just three weeks after another private hire driver who works for the same firm, Direct Cabs, was robbed of his vehicle at knifepoint in Balerno.

Police said today they were keeping an "open mind" on whether the incidents were linked and refused to comment on rumours drugs gangs were involved in the latest incident.

It is understood the cab stolen on Sunday had been booked to take passengers from Lochend to Cumnor Crescent in The Inch.

Criminals from the north of the city are involved in a personal battle with a hardened drug dealers from The Inch.

One source said: "This was designed to send a message to the guys in The Inch. I doubt it was an accident that the car was ordered to go to Cumnor Crescent."

The Direct Cabs vehicle was later found abandoned in Newhaven Main Street.

In the earlier incident, two men and two women stole the cab before crashing it into a wall in Lanark Road West on September 20. A company spokesman today confirmed its drivers were the victims on both occasions.

A police spokesman said: "We are investigating an incident where the driver of a private hire vehicle was assaulted by two men after being called to an address in Lochend Avenue at around 4.45pm on Sunday.

"The driver was threatened, and was forced from his vehicle. The two suspects then drove off in the Skoda Octavia, which was later found abandoned."

In last month's incident, the Direct Cabs driver picked up the four suspects in Hailesland Grove after they had been thrown out of another taxi at the Murrayburn petrol station for violent behaviour and suspicion of carrying a knife.

The suspects broke one of its windows before attacking the driver and forcing him on to the street when he refused to drive through a red light. The suspects made off with the car before crashing into a wall at the junction of Lanark Road West and Station Loan and abandoning it.

Both incidents come amid growing violence between drugs gangs in the city and follow the shooting of a private hire cab from Festival City Cars in Royston Mains Road on September 15.

• Police have issued descriptions of two men they are hunting over Sunday's incident.

The first man is white, 23 to 24, 6ft 2in, with short dark hair, and wearing a white top with a blue stripe down the arms, and black gloves. The other man is white, 5ft 7in, 23 to 24, with short brown hair and acne scars on his face.

In the earlier carjacking, the first suspect is male, white, late-20s, 5ft 10in, with short light brown hair and wearing a T-shirt and jeans.

The second is also male, white, mid-20s, between 5ft 6ins and 5ft 8in, with a medium build wearing jeans and a shirt.

The third was female, white, mid-20s, medium build with dirty blonde hair, wearing jeans and a T-shirt. The final suspect is also female, white, mid-20s.