A HOME Office contractor has been urged to rehouse asylum seekers now to avoid further tragedies,

Sabir Zazai, head of the Scottish Refugee Council, says his organisation is “extremely worried” about the 400 people who remain in Glasgow hotels one week on from the Park Inn attack.

The circumstances behind the attack by Badreddin Abadlla Adam, 28, remain under investigation. However, other Park Inn residents say they raised the alarm about his mental state the night before the attack. He is understood to have complained about the food, conditions and tensions with other residents in the hotel.

PC David Whyte, the police officer injured in the incident, was released from hospital yesterday. Four other men who were injured remain there, with one in a critical but stable condition and the other three described as stable. Those attacked by Adam, who was shot dead by police, include other asylum seekers and hotel staff. The youngest person injured was just 17.

READ MORE: Constable David Whyte is released from hospital after knife attack

Whyte thanked medics at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital for “saving my life”, adding: “I feel incredibly lucky being able to leave hospital less than a week after the incident. I would also like to thank everyone at Police Scotland for their support and also the thousands of people who have sent warm wishes from around the world over the last few days. There is no doubt that I face a long road to recovery but I am absolutely determined to be back on duty as soon as I possibly can be.”

About 400 people were placed in hotels by Home Office contractor Mears Group in what the company said was a coronavirus protection measure.

The National has learned that one couple has been moved into a flat in the city and had their £35-per-person weekly allowance restored.

But others remain in hotels and Zazai says his organisation is “extremely concerned” about their wellbeing. He said: “Many of these men and women have fled war zones to resettle in Scotland. They have been living in city centre hotels for the last three months with no money, little control over their lives and very limited access to support services throughout the lockdown period.

READ MORE: Peaceful protest takes place outside Glasgow's Home Office centre

“Mears Group, which oversees asylum housing in Glasgow, committed last week to starting to move people out of hotels and into proper flats and houses. But one week on from the tragedy, people are still stuck in limbo in the hotels.

“This is a human tragedy. The people we have spoken to in hotels this week are frightened, in shock and really traumatised by what happened last week. They need to be listened to.”

The attack and Adam’s death come after 30-year-old Syrian Adnan Elbi, a torture survivor, died in another of the hotels.

Police said that was not suspicious but the cause of death is not yet known and friends say he had revealed suicidal thoughts.

Zazai said: “It doesn’t get more serious than this. But things could get even worse if Mears and the Home Office don’t act with the utmost urgency to get people into safe, secure homes and do absolutely everything they can to avoid any further tragedies.”

The couple – a man and a woman – moved from their hotel room into an east end flat said they were unaware of any other transfers. They have had their subsistence payments re-instated and we have agreed not to name them due to safety concerns.

The man said cooking their first meal – an omelette bought with their own money for the first time in months – was “like therapy”. He said: “We were broke. We didn’t even have £1 in our pockets, this feels like a fortune. We can go to Lidl and buy whatever we want, it has a powerful impact.

“We are cleaning, washing, tidying up. We’ve started feeling like normal people. We’ve got our neighbours here. Sharing a small conversation with them, it’s like medicine.”

Mears said: “As the Covid-19 lockdown begins to ease, we are now able to restart our programme of improvements and new procurement.”