A nine-year-old girl has told of the "petrifying" moment a man threatened to throw her in the canal in Edinburgh.
The schoolgirl was cycling with her mother alongside the Union Canal at Meggetland last week when a man, aged in his 50s or 60s, blocked her path.
She said he was menacing and angry, and he shouted at her that the path was for pedestrians only.
Police Scotland said they were investigating the incident and community police officers were carrying out additional patrols in the area.
She said she was too scared to say anything other than "OK".
When her 44-year-old mother caught up with her the man told them he would push them both into the canal.
The woman said he fitted the police description of a man who pushed people into the canal in 2022, and she asked him if he was the "canal pusher".
"He got even more angry and puffed up a bit more and looked like he was actually going to chuck me in and my daughter," she said.
"In that moment I realised actually I'm in big trouble potentially and I need to get away. It was very scary.
"I told him we would walk instead of cycling and we edged away."
It is understood that police are not connecting the latest incident with those in 2022.
While she was trying to call the police a runner and another cyclist stopped to say they too had been threatened by the man.
It is the latest in a series of similar incidents on the Craiglockhart/Meggetland section of the 31 mile (51km) canal.
Insp Keith Forrester, of Police Scotland, confirmed the incident involving the nine-year-old. He said they were aware of other reports of similar behaviour in the area, but that they were not linked.
He said inquiries were ongoing and that they were reviewing CCTV from the area.
"We are aware of concerns in the community following reports recently of assaults and threatening behaviour on footpaths along the Union Canal in the Edinburgh area," he said.
"Community policing teams are carrying out additional, high visibility patrols of the area."