A SPATE of serious New Year incidents – including a sex attack and a house fire – are being investigated by the emergency services.
In Inverness, a fight near the city centre led to a man being admitted to hospital with a serious head injury.
An investigation was launched after fire totally destroyed a remote cottage in the far north. All that remained of the traditional single-storey croft house near Occumster, in Caithness, were the four walls and its chimney-stack.
The occupants, believed to be a couple who moved to the area some years ago, were not at home when the blaze started at about 8pm on Hogmanay.
Yesterday afternoon, a police constable was standing guard over the property while waiting for fire investigators to travel north from Inverness. The alarm was raised at 8.23pm and two fire units from Wick more than 13 miles away, and one from Dunbeath about 10 miles away, attended. Firefighters had the blaze under control by 1.10am yesterday. The flames had spread to such an extent that there was little the crews could do to prevent the house being destroyed.
The two nearest houses to the property are about half a mile away. Elsewhere in the north, it was a busy start to the New Year for the emergency services.
Police at Aviemore are investigating a sex attack outside a nightclub and a serious road accident in which a pedestrian was knocked down.
The sex assault happened at about 1.30am as New Year revellers were milling about the centre of the village.
Police said the female was attacked in the area know as “the tunnel” beside The Vault nightclub in Grampian Road.
Officers are trying to trace all the people who were in the area at the time and have appealed for any witnesses to come forward.
About three hours later police launched an investigation after a man suffered serious injuries after he was hit by a vehicle near Aviemore. The pedestrian was struck on the A95 Aviemore to Grantown road, at Kinveachy north of Aviemore at about 4.30am. He was taken by ambulance to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness where he is being treated.
The road was closed for about five hours while officers from the road policing unit carried out a full investigation.
In Inverness, a fight between two men resulted in one of them being taken to Raigmore Hospital with a serious head injury. It is understood the injured man is a foreign national.
The assault took place about 3.30am on Huntly Street that runs along the west bank of the River Ness.
Inverness councillor Donnie Kerr said: “It is sad that people cannot see in the New Year without violence.”
The police also issued an appeal for witnesses following an assault on a 34-year-old man as he walked on the B9153 Carrbridge to Kinveachy Road on Monday at about 12.45pm. A number of passing motorists stopped to assist the man and the police are keen to speak to these people.
The victim was about 6ft, wearing dark waterproofs and carrying a large rucksack.