A television company today said sorry to the families of victims of the Bradford City fire after it allowed footage of the disaster to be used in a documentary on football hooliganism.

Fans were outraged when pictures of the fire appeared in the Football Fight Club programme screened on Channel Four on Tuesday.

And Bradford City called for a full investigation into how Yorkshire Television's footage had got into the hands of the documentary makers.

The programme - on the rise of hooliganism during the 1970s - was screened less than three weeks before the anniversary of the 1985 fire, which has always been regarded as a tragic accident.

Today Yorkshire Television officials apologised for what they called 'an unfortunate mistake'.

"We deeply regret any distress this incident may have caused to the friends and relatives of those involved in the Bradford fire," a spokesman said.

"We have looked into the circumstances surrounding the release of the material and, as a consequence, systems are now in place to prevent this from happening again."

The controversial documentary attracted a flood of complaints from fans on the club's official website.

Mark Neale, chairman of the Bradford City Supporters' Club, rejected claims from Channel Four that the programme had made it clear that the fire was not being used as an example of hooliganism.

He said he was surprised Yorkshire Television had allowed the footage to be used after promising it would only release the film in special circumstances.

"Anybody watching that programme who was not listening carefully to what was said could easily think that the fire was related to football hooliganism," said Mr Neale. "There seems to be a widespread misconception about the cause of the fire.

"It is still a very sensitive issue and therefore use of the pictures in this way is totally careless, especially at this time of year when the thoughts of those who were there always start drifting towards May 11."

Bradford City secretary Jon Pollard said the club was furious the film had been released.

"We had no idea that this footage was going to be used until I saw the programme on Tuesday night," he said. "The fire is a sensitive subject and always will be in this city and it is certainly in bad taste to use the footage in a programme about hooliganism."

Two years ago, the club's City Gent fanzine successfully blocked plans to use footage from the fire in a documentary about hooliganism made by American company Fox TV.