A BOY of 7 and his father and a 41-year-old disabled man have been injured in two attacks in Scottish cities because they were wearing England tops.

Hugo Clapshaw was playing on his scooter in an Edinburgh park on Saturday when he was punched in the head by a man who shouted anti-English abuse at him before running off. On Tuesday, Ian Smith, a former postman from Peterborough, was dragged from his car in Aberdeen and beaten up in the street as he waited to pick up a friend’s child from a primary school.

Yesterday police said that they were treating both attacks as racially motivated, as politicians and Scotland football fans united to condemn “narrow-minded thuggery”.

Tony Blair, speaking in the Commons, called the attacks “appalling and totally unjustified”. However, he infuriated Jack McConnell, Scotland’s First Minister, when he went on to agree with Anne Begg, the Labour MP for Aberdeen South, that the incidents “besmirched” the reputation of the Tartan Army. Mr McConnell’s spokesmen defended the Tartan Army’s “fantastic reputation”.

Hugo, who was born in New Zealand, moved with his New Zealander father and Scottish mother to Edinburgh two years ago. He said of his attacker: “He whacked me on the head very hard and it’s left a big bruise, but I’m still going to wear my top and support England. I would support Scotland if they were there.”

Hugo had been playing football in Inverleith Park with his father, Damon, 34, a finance worker. Mr Clapshaw said that he was stunned when he saw the man, who was wearing a Rangers top, hit his son. He ran after the thug to confront him but then decided to walk away. “He attacked me from behind,” Mr Clapshaw said.

A businessman last night vowed to put up a £1,000 reward for details leading to a conviction for the attack. Charles Pottinger, who runs the Military Shine cleaning firm in Edinburgh, told Talk 107 radio station: “I am absolutely infuriated by this, and not just because it was a child. The attack was mindless.”

Mr Smith, who has a disabled badge on his car, was listening to the Germany match on the car radio. A passer-by began shouting abuse at him and snapped off an England flag attached to the window. He then opened the door and dragged Mr Smith on to the street and beat him up. Mr Smith said that the incident would not stop him wearing his England shirt. “There should be no room for racist bigots,” he said.

Two Englishmen were beaten up in Linwood, Renfrewshire, after the Trinidad & Tobago game and a week earlier a man had his windows smashed for flying the St George’s Cross in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire.

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