Shock as man knifed in busy street

COMMUTERS looked on in horror as a man was stabbed in the street in broad daylight.

The 34-year-old victim, named locally as Amit Pandya, was bleeding heavily from his back after an alleged fight with another man on the corner of Yeaman Place and Dundee Street, in Fountainbridge, as residents walked past at around 5.30pm last night.

The injured man and another man had allegedly been fighting in the street as a woman looked on, witnesses claimed.

One witness said he heard the injured man scream, "I've been stabbed", as he staggered outside looking for help.

The man's injuries are not thought to be life threatening, and he was in a stable condition in hospital this morning.

A local chip-shop owner, who asked not to be named, told how he looked out of his shop to see an Asian man bleeding in the street.

He said: "I saw the guy had blood on his back. The girl was trying to calm the guy down.

"I tried to break it up and the guy turned on me.

"He was calling me everything, swearing at me. I said 'I'm trying to help'.

"Eventually, a customer pulled him and me into the shop and we shut the door. The guy was going mad and banging on the windows.

"He (the victim] was bleeding, heavily I'd say. He was breathing heavily too.

"He'd been stabbed in the (lower] back and there was blood coming through his T-shirt.

"I heard him shout before 'I've been stabbed'. We phoned the ambulance and someone called the police. I've never lived anywhere like this before. People need to stick together and help each other."

Faisal Ali, 28, who runs the shop next door, said two men had entered his shop together, arguing and swearing at each other.

He said: "They came in together and they were swearing at each other. They seemed to know each other. I said 'please leave the shop'.

Lauren MacInnes, 26, who lives above the shops where the incident took place, said she saw the injured man holding himself up against the wall when she got off the bus.

She said: "He was standing and leaning against the wall but he looked pretty bad. He was bleeding from the back. People were around him helping him and a woman got him a bottle of water.

"You don't expect something like that to happen in broad daylight on a main road when people are coming home from work."

A 41-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman have been charged in connection with the incident, and were due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today.

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: "A man and a woman have been arrested after a 34-year-old man was the victim of a serious assault that happened in the Fountainbridge area of the Capital.

"The victim has been taken to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and police are appealing for witnesses to the incident, which happened in Yeaman Place around 5.30pm.

"Anyone with any information should contact Lothian and Borders Police on 0131-311 3131, or Crimestoppers in confidence and complete anonymity on 0800 555 111."