Police officers on the ground were praised for their handling of trouble in the Bradford riots.

Despite some criticism of senior officers' response to the violence, many said the ordinary officers had acted bravely.

The work of the 1,000 strong police force was praised highly by fire officers who said they felt very well protected during the night while they dealt with incidents in the Whetley Hill and Oak Lane areas.

Station Officer David Swales, of Odsal fire station, said: "The police did a tremendous job in terms of providing us with security - they took a large amount of pain in the process." He said he couldn't praise them too highly.

And Coun Ghazanfer Khaliq, the Lord Mayor, said: "My information is that the police weren't heavy-handed. The police were doing a difficult job in the circumstances they were in."

Former Mayor, Mohammed Ajeeb, said police had made some mistakes, and that some Asian people had complained officers had not been present or reacted quickly enough to criminal damage to predominantly-Asian areas. "There was no police presence when some of the elements came to burn the garage on Oak Lane. Nothing was done to contain the youths.

"Some people felt the police didn't really try hard to protect their areas, they were more interested in the city centre and ignored damage in the Asian areas."

But Home Secretary David Blunkett said he had nothing but admiration for the police's work on Saturday night.

Mr Blunkett said: "I commend the police for their bravery and determination in the face of enormous provocation and regret the injuries caused."

But the operation earlier in the day in the city centre has come in for criticism from several quarters in the city.

And questions have been raised about whether senior police officers did enough to protect Asian neighbourhoods - as well as the city centre - from the rampage.

Some people involved with the Anti-Nazi League rally felt the police were at the same time too overbearing and too laissez-faire.

It was felt they used unnecessary force with young Asians in the crowd while not being harsh enough with a known Nazi pointed out to officers during the day.

Robina Siddique, organiser of the rally in Centenary Square, said a Nazi sympathiser had managed to gain entry to the square and mill about with the crowd.

"Two women were spat at and insulted by this person," she said. "This man produced a Stanley knife, he was pointed out to police and later arrested. But this helped cause tension to grow because we didn't feel we were being effectively policed.

"We got rumours of National Front people being in a bar, but why didn't police know this through surveillance? That was a failure. They failed to protect us at our rally, but they were over-zealous in other ways."

Members of Bradford Trades Council are understood to have made a series of telephone calls to police naming a person known to them and officers as a self-proclaimed Nazi. But although he was seen being spoken to by police, he was not arrested until later.

Altaf Arif, is a regional young volunteer of the year. He works with an anti-racist group in the city - inspired by the memory of his cab driver father, who was killed in a racist attack when Altaf was just a baby.

He was in Centenary Square helping to keep youths calm during the anti-Nazi rally.

But anger at a race attack in Ivegate sparked a response by young Asian people, he said.

"The police have admitted they made errors and I agree," he said. "They failed to arrest a known Nazi who was roaming the streets. They searched him but didn't arrest him. He was later seen at Addison's stamping on an Asian guy's head.

"Then the police used force on Asian kids. One lad running down the street was shoved against a wall and had his face smashed for no apparent reason - it was unacceptable. Police had also made a mistake in putting pressure on the Council to axe the festival.

"If the World in a City event was still on, it would have been a distraction for people - instead, all they had was the police and tension grew."

He said the anti-fascist rally had passed off peacefully for four and a half hours, but anger at the racist attack - and the failure of police to pick up one right wing extremist pointed out to them - caused it "to kick off".