Between the nights of 19 and 21 October, the Edinburgh Student Housing Co-operative (ESHC) was vandalised with racist and sexist graffiti and attacked with projectile fire crackers, according to inside sources.
The perpetrators were found to be a group of secondary school students from the Morningside area, who have since been apprehended by local Police. According to a resident of the ESHC, knowledge about the vandals was gained through public photos shared on the social media site Facebook, of the group posing outside the vandalised property at the time of the incident.
The name of one of the perpetrators was also written on the wall alongside the racist and sexist slurs, accompanied by his mobile phone number and home address. 
Speaking to The Student, an anonymous resident of the ESHC discussed the incident. “The graffiti is clearly indicative of racial hatred and deeply unsettling views.
“The fact that this is scrawled all over a building which prides itself on inclusiveness and diversity only underlines that this constitutes a hate crime and reflects a troubling undercurrent that has been surfacing more and more in the past few months”, they said.
The night of 19 October began the series of attacks, being the night the graffiti appeared on the outer walls of the building. On the night of 21 October the situation escalated, with more graffiti and lit firecrackers being thrown at the building’s façade and windows.
The ESHC resident emphasised the fact that they and their fellow residents tried to deal with the issue peacefully, before finally contacting police after the fire projectiles were used.
“If they just wanted to hang out on our stairs, we wouldn’t have minded, we’re a welcoming bunch. What crosses the line is instances like this when things are just pushed too far. 
“If anything we’re worried about what is making a group of young people act with this level of recklessness and ignorance,” they told The Student.
Image: The Student