A POLICE force has been criticised for the way it handled a complaint received after officers failed to respond to 10 emergency calls from a takeaway owner who was being attacked by around 20 men armed with baseball bats and golf clubs.

Jing Guo, his wife and two staff were trapped inside the Hong Kong Express Takeaway in Edinburgh for 90 minutes while the gang threw bottles and hurled racist abuse at them. They phoned the emergency services repeatedly but no help came and they were even told not to call again as the incident had already been registered.

Lothian and Borders Police later issued a statement saying they "deeply regretted" the force's handling of the inci- dent on May 18, 2009, and added that they would conduct their own investigation into the failures.

The secretary of the local community council then wrote to police asking for a copy of the internal inquiry and waited three months for a reply, only to be told that the Force Communication Centre's procedures had been reviewed and a number of points for improvement identified.

The case was referred to the Police Complaints Commissioner to Scotland, John McNeill, whose report published today criticised the response provided by the Deputy Chief Constable.

The report, which did not name the takeaway or Mr Guo, said: "Whilst the deputy chief constable explained that, following the incident practices and procedures had been reviewed and improvements identified, he did not explain what went wrong or how the improvements identified would prevent a similar situation occurring in the future.

"As such, the commissioner is unsurprised that the applicant remains dissatisfied with the handling of his complaint.

"In light of this, the commissioner does not consider that this complaint was dealt with in a reasonable manner.

"The commissioner recommends that Lothian and Borders Police writes to the applicant explaining the failings which were identified following the review and the steps which have been taken to prevent a recurrence."

Mr Guo could not be contacted yesterday but in the days after the incident he criticised the police, saying: "We feared for our lives. My anger is that after ten calls, no one bothered to help us."

The commissioner also told Strathclyde Police to apologise to a family for the time it took to respond to emergency calls for help while an alleged attacker was trying to force his way into their house with knives and hammers.

The family, who had already spoken to police after one of the relatives was allegedly slashed in the face by the same person, made three 999 calls but the call centre mistakenly rated the incident as the lowest priority and officers arrived at the house 17 minutes after the final call.

A police spokesman said: "Following the incident to which this complaint refers, a detailed inquiry was carried out in consultation with the individuals involved.

"They subsequently indicated they considered the matter closed and were satisfied with the action taken by the force.

"At that time, the force reviewed its call handling procedures."

The force will be writing to Mr Guo.