Two traffic wardens have been attacked in separate incidents in Edinburgh in the past four days, according to police.

Both men needed hospital treatment as a result of the unprovoked assaults.

In the first attack on Friday afternoon, an attendant was shot in the head with what is thought to have been an air gun pellet.

He was working for a private company contracted by Edinburgh City Council to enforce parking regulations.

David Blackley: "I was in shock"

The 31-year-old man was in Royal Circus when he felt the pellet hit on the left side of his head and he was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for treatment to a minor injury.

A police spokeswoman said: "The attendant was examining cars when he was struck on the left side of the head with what he believes to be an air gun pellet.

"He saw no-one at the time of the incident so we are keen for anyone who was in the area at the time and who saw or heard anything to contact us."

In the most recent incident, David Blackley, a traffic warden employed by Lothian and Borders police was approached by two men in a red Ford Escort car in Crichton Place on Leith Walk.

'It didn't sink in'

When he bent over to speak to them, the 33-year-old warden was sprayed in the face with an unknown liquid and needed treatment at the city's eye pavilion.

Tests showed the substance to be slightly acidic.

Mr Blackley told BBC Scotland: "He (one of the men) looked up at me and smiled, and then pulled a bottle from between his legs.

"He then sprayed it twice in my face. I was in shock at the time and didn't really know what had happened.

"It didn't actually sink in until later on when I phoned my wife and she started crying - it was only then that it hit me, how serious it actually was."

Police have described it as a shocking incident.