A 47-year-old man has died after a spate of attacks across Scotland’s remote north west.
An attacker armed with a gun also injured three other people and has been detained by police.
The suspect, a 39-year-old man, has been arrested in connection with all of the incidents.
Police Scotland confirmed the rampage began on the isle of Skye before continuing in Wester Ross on the mainland.
The first attack happened in the Tarskavaig area of Skye, a large island off Scotland’s west coast with a population of around 10,000, shortly before 9am this morning.
Police later found a 32-year-old woman with serious injuries at the house and she was flown to Glasgow for medical help.
About half an hour later, a gun blast was reported at another property in the Teangue area of the island, around eight miles away.
A 47-year-old man was found dead at the scene shortly after.
The violence then spread to the mainland when there was another gun attack in Dornie, a rural part of Scotland’s west coast connected to Skye by road.
A man and a woman were taken to hospitals in Inverness and Broadford for treatment for ‘serious injuries’.
Police have confirmed a gun was used at the property but have not provided further details.
Chief superintendent Conrad Trickett, local policing commander for Highlands and Islands Division, said: ‘Incidents such as this are thankfully extremely rare but I understand that this will have a significant effect on the local community in these rural areas.
‘I would like to reassure people that we are treating these incidents as contained with no wider threat to the public.
‘There will a significant police presence in the area over the coming days and we will be working with partners to provide support to the local community.
‘I would like to thank people for their co-operation as our investigation progresses.’
Ian Blackford, SNP MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, wrote on Twitter: ‘As more details come to light, the response of the emergency services seems to have stopped this incident spreading even further than it did.
‘Thank you for the work that you do.’
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