Three women have been arrested after a van was driven into the perimeter fence of the Leonardo defence facility on Ferry Road in Edinburgh on Tuesday morning.
The site, which employs around 1,800 people, is a major supplier of surveillance radars and countermeasure systems for aircraft and helicopters.
A pro-Palestinian activist group, Shut Down Leonardo Edinburgh, claimed responsibility for the incident, alleging the company supplies weapons and aircraft to Israel.
Images from the scene showed individuals standing on top of the van following the crash.
LATEST: Images have captured pro-Palestine campaigners being arrested by police after they drove a van into the security fence of a Leonardo factory in Edinburgh this morning
Three women, aged 31, 34 and 42, have been arrested in connection, police have said pic.twitter.com/cOHNe7K6PF
— The National (@ScotNational) July 15, 2025
Police Scotland confirmed the arrest of three women aged 31, 34 and 42, stating that enquiries were ongoing. The force described the event as a “disturbance” and said it responded swiftly to the situation.
Leonardo UK, the Italian-owned defence contractor, has not issued a public comment at this time. The Edinburgh site is known for contributing to major international defence programmes, including Eurofighter Typhoon components and radar systems for NATO partners.
The group behind the protest stated that their aim was to disrupt operations at the facility. The incident marks the latest in a series of direct action efforts targeting UK-based defence manufacturers.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Officers were called to an ongoing disturbance in the Crewe Road North area of Edinburgh on the morning of Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Three women, aged 31, 34 and 42, have been arrested in connection and enquiries are ongoing.”
Now let me think🤔did this impact or disrupt Israeli operations at all,did they even notice it? Stupid and bloody stupid actions again😡
Pointless instead of stupid🙄
All this has achieved is a little free advertising for the local car wash.
This type of headline grabbing stunt deserves to be ignored. Which I will now do ….
Ah all the hallmarks of terrorists attempting to commit acts of terrorism. On conviction, the perpetrators of these terrorist offences must face a long stretch in prison.
Charge them for being terrorists. This carry on is getting ridiculous.
Hopefully they only intended to impact perimeter fence for publicity. Ramming cannot be tolerated. Even I am pro Gaza these days, Isreal have blown all the good will.
These people need remanded in custody until a court date.
Naive misinformed Idealists
They could destroy the Leonardo factory totally, disband all of the UK’s armed forces, burn down Westminster Palace. …etc
NONE of it would make a difference to what is happening in Gaza or the West-bank today.
Positive support would be doing something like supplying food /water aid, or helping to get aid convoys to the region.
That is unfortunately the problem, no matter the reality these individuals truly believe that somehow the UK has some influence over Israel. No matter the evidence you will never get past these individuals critical faculty.
Product of El Governmento going light on “protest” they agree with.
Can’t the courts put these people to work doing something useful like filling in potholes?
But.. the roads help supply the goods from factory to the docks/airport.. probably end up with more potholes
I for one want to applaud the H&S requirement for our police to wear full climbing harnesses, tethers and helmets to climb up a ladder to the height of a transit van. I feel safe.
😂
“Women drivers” 🤦♀️
Another group to be proscribed for terrorism and shit down.
Not too bright are they 🤷🏻♂️
Hope these scumbags get a nice jail sentence up their backside,the old days a truncheon over the head and a few black eyes
As a guess, these clowns will be white middle class wannabees, who think they are martyrs for the cause, and willing to spend 6 hours in a police cell, with tea and biscuits, then released, to be feted by the rest of the group, prior to the charges being dropped 12 months later. Ramming a security fence with a van, of a defence related establishment, to me, in the current climate, IS a terrorist related incident and they need to be dealt with harshly, and as an example. But alas, we know they wont get any sentence worth its salt, as our judiciary is so watered down with left wing idealists who hate the country they milk. As an aside, talking about Judiciary, how about working 6 days per week, finishing later than 15;30hrs, get the 18000 remand prisoner into court and reduce the prison population that way.
and, relax. 😁
And that’s what they want, us to relax and hopefully ignore or not notice 😵💫