Notorious yobs' reign of terror in Princes St

A STREET gang is being blamed for terrorising Princes Street, carrying out violent assaults and dealing in drugs.

Police are pursuing Asbos against members of the Edinburgh Young Team after blaming the gang for a "particularly nasty" unprovoked attack on Spanish tourists visiting the street.

Teenage gang members have been accused of using "shocking" levels of violence in attacking other youths around the city centre's east end.

The group of between 20 and 50 youths, aged mainly 15 to 18, congregate in the area around the St James Centre and Princes Mall, drinking heavily and taking drugs.

Two youths have already been banned from the street as part of their bail conditions in the wake of the assault on the Spanish tourists in June.

Police are gathering evidence to take Asbos and acceptable behaviour contracts (ABCs) out against others, banning them from the area.

Police have repeatedly tried to disperse the gang – who are said to regard the east end of the street as their territory – and regularly search them for weapons and drugs.

Several of the gang are understood to have convictions for violence and other offences.

Fiona Horne, development coordinator at the 6VT youth café, which has been working with some members of the gang, said: "We engaged with about 20 of the EYT at the older end who were 16 to 18. They had been causing a lot of problems around Princes Street.

"They were fighting and drinking and are actually quite notorious in the city centre. These were serious assaults they were involved in. It's not vandalism and petty offending.

"They view themselves as defending their territory, fighting people who come on to their patch. They see it as their patch of land. People have been quite shocked about the levels of violence."

Police spelled out their concerns in a report to the city council on the work of its Neighbourhood Action Units.

The report said: "There was a particularly nasty, serious assault at the east end of Princes Street involving groups of Edinburgh youths, belonging to the Edinburgh Young Team.

"They assaulted Spanish tourists in an unprovoked and sustained assault involving several young people.

"ABCs and Asbos are being pursued in relation to this group of individuals."

However, a police spokesman stressed that most of the youth disorder the force dealt with did not involve organised violence.

"While we recognise that there are issues surrounding youth disorder in the city, these are, for the most part, related to vandalism, graffiti and anti-social behaviour, rather than any form of organised violence," he said.

"Recent analysis has shown a significant drop in the number of calls received by police in respect of incidents of youth disorder.

"There was a 21 per cent drop in the number of such calls from the period covering April to July 2008, when compared to the figures for the same period last year."