Bradford was today facing the monumental task of rebuilding shattered communities and relationships in the wake of the weekend's devastating riots.

Politicians, civic leaders and the city's residents are demanding answers to fundamental questions about why what police vowed would be a peaceful and strictly controlled gathering in the city centre's Centenary Square was able to escalate into the worst violence the district has seen since the 1995 Manningham riots.

They want to know why, despite a tip-off there would be serious violence, police chiefs so badly mis judged the situation, were unable to snuff out the first hint of trouble and ended up being totally outnumbered by rioters.

Sir Herman Ouseley - architect of the much-anticipated report on race relations in Bradford which is due to be published this week - put the blame for the riots firmly on the decision to cancel Saturday's planned Bradford Festival finale because of the threat of violence.

Instead of hosting family entertainment, Centenary Square became temporary home to hundreds of people who turned out in support of an Anti-Nazi League protest against the National Front.

A ring of officers surrounded Cententary Square from early afternoon on Saturday as officers concentrated on keeping protesters in one place. Other officers, on bikes, in vans, on foot and horseback, were dotted throughout the city centre apparently poised to respond to the first sign of trouble.

Outside the Tyrls police station, lunchtime shoppers witnessed officers sorting riot shields and batons.

But within hours, the city's streets had turned into a violent battlefield.

The demonstration turned ugly following reports an Asian youth had been beaten up by a group of skinheads and quickly escalated into a wave of destruction which saw more than a thousand people take to the city streets and a hard-core of several hundred trouble-makers go on the rampage.

In a series of running battles and angry confrontations, lines of riot police were pelted with bricks, bottles and fireworks, firebombs rained down on random targets, dozens of cars were torched and huge blazes gutted a car showroom, three pubs and two clubs.

As the huge clean-up operation got underway, senior officers were already admitting they had lost their grip on Saturday's events and that their strategy of "contain and disperse" had failed.

A total of 120 police officers were injured in the intense battle to gain the upper hand against the rioters, three of them suffering fractures. Two people were stabbed.

Almost 1,000 officers were drafted into the city from neighbouring forces and further afield, including Merseyside, as police struggled to restore calm amid horrifying scenes of destruction.

The massive operation to quell the uprising is expected to cost the West Yorkshire force dearly. Last night, as community leaders appealed for people to stay off the streets, even greater numbers of officers were on standby, with reinforcements from across the country boosting local ranks.

As officers attempted to offer explanations for why they were so massively overwhelmed by the trouble, they faced intense pressure to rapidly bring to book those responsible for the mayhem.

So far just 36 people have been arrested. Twenty-seven of those are still in custody, four of them in connection with the devastating arson attack on a BMW showroom.

Despite claims that many of the perpetrators flooded into the city from other areas, the vast majority of those arrested were from Bradford.

Today police begin the mammoth task of scouring dozens of hours of video footage in an attempt to pinpoint those responsible for wanton criminality and to piece together a full and accurate picture of the sequence of events which resulted in such mindless thuggery.

There were numereous reports of National Front members and other right wing extremists roaming the city on Saturday and officers now say they believe between 12 and 30 travelled to Bradford despite the fact that Home Secretary David Blunkett last week issued an order which allowed a planned march by the NF to be banned.

Mr Blunkett, who has strongly criticised "local people who have damaged their own community and its future", was today meeting the city's MPs to discuss the weekend's events. They are so concerned about the level of violence witnessed over the weekend they will make radical suggestions for police to be given extra powers and weapons to deal with such outbreaks of disorder, including the use of powerful European-style water cannons.

As Bradford added its name to the list of areas blighted by what is being dubbed by some as the "summer of violence", one senior councillor has claimed the riots have set race relations in the city back by ten years.

Other civic leaders highlighted the need to tackle deep-seated economic and social problems in Bradford inner city communities, while senior church figures called for "sober thought" on the divisions within Bradford and stated the importance of taking time to listen to those who though violence was the answer to their problems.

People in Manningham who witnessed the terrifying events from their homes have their own opinions about the reasons behind the riot. Some believe that the weekend's events should be a lesson not just for Bradford, but for the Government.They are also keenly aware at the lasting legacy the mass unrest will leave in its wake, including hitting jobs, house prices and insurance premiums.

The sheer scale of the disorder has led to inevitable comparisons with the 1995 riots and the recent turmoil in both Burnley and Oldham.

It has also put the district even more firmly under the glare of the international spotlight in a week when media attention was already expected to be sharply focused on Bradford with the publication of Sir Herman's race review report.

Any hope civic leaders may have had of presenting what could well be a highly critical indictment of race relations in Bradford in a positive light will now have been dashed.

City chiefs are likely to face sharp scrutiny about how they intend to use and build on the recommendations made by Sir Herman in his report and it is likely they will face a potentially uncomfortable inquisition into what lessons Bradford learned in the aftermath of the 1995 riots and what positive action was taken following the publication of the Bradford Commission Report into those riots which put the onus for action squarely in the court of civic leaders.

The Home Secretary has placed enormous emphasis on Sir Herman's report and laid the responsibility for engineering change at the door of the city's civic, community and business leaders, calling on them to focus their energy on rebuilding confidence.