A mob of Rangers fans who pursued a lone police officer before stamping on his head were described as a “pack of wild wolves” by a senior policewoman yesterday.

Officers were so sickened by the episode, which symbolised the brutality of the “Battle of Piccadilly”, where fans clashed with riot police into the early hours, that they released the CCTV footage to justify their “measured” response.

The images show the officer, one of seven, retreating before a much larger number of pursuers along a street in Manchester city centre at around 10.15pm on Wednesday night. He is seen being punched and tripped and falling to the ground.

Then around 20 attackers kick and stamp on the officer's head before he makes a run for it, leaving the fans holding their arms aloft as if in triumph. The officer escaped with only a broken arm but could have been seriously harmed.

Assistant Chief Constable Justine Curran, the match commander, said: “The people in that CCTV footage acted like a pack of wolves. Whatever happened earlier there was no excuse for this level of violence. We had to act decisively.”

It had been billed as a carnival of football in the sun, a chance for Scotland's football fans to show how far they have come from the bad old days in a city which has long experience of playing host to big sporting occasions. And, for much of the day, it lived up to expectations.

The authorities appeared to have been taken by surprise by the sheer numbers of ticketless Rangers fans who descended on Manchester. They had been expecting around 50,000, but the real figure was estimated to be between 100,000 and 150,000.

It was, said Sir Richard Leese, the council leader, the largest invasion of its kind that the city had ever experienced. Sir Richard blamed a hardcore of several hundred fans for the violence that erupted after the giant screen in Piccadilly Gardens went blank. Sporadic violence and running battles between fans and police spilled over into nearby streets late into the night.

One Russian fan was stabbed in the stadium but his injuries were not thought to be life-threatening. There were 42 arrests, including five for wounding with intent or suspicion of stabbing, and 15 police officers were treated for injuries.

Commuters arrived yesterday morning to find the city awash with pools of urine and buried under more than 100 tonnes of beer bottles, cans and other rubbish. Piccadilly Gardens, one of the city's few green spaces, looked like a battleground.

Meanwhile, thousands of bruised and hungover fans, some still clutching cans of lager, began the long journey home, leaving Manchester to begin the inquest into how the Uefa Cup Final carnival went so horribly wrong.

Many fans complained about the lack of organisation, the technical failure of the large screen and the police's heavy-handed response. One said: “The police were well out of order. A young girl of ten years old was hit. That's just sick.”

The allegations were rebutted by Sir Richard, who described the night's events as shaming for Manchester, Glasgow and Rangers Football Club.

Many of the fans had been drinking alcohol since breakfast time, replenishing stocks from off-licences. By the time the large screen in Piccadilly Gardens went blank, they appeared too drunk to follow the advice to climb aboard the shuttle buses for the Velodrome, where a fourth screen had been hastily set up.

Sir Richard said: “Despite that a couple of hundred so-called fans - we will call them yobs - stayed in the city centre. They began causing trouble, assaulting and kicking police officers. Clearly the police then had to clear that trouble.

“We are obviously very disappointed that what was a great night was soured by the behaviour of a very small number of people. Over the last ten years we have held a number of sporting events in the city and we plan to hold many more.

“We are not going to let the behaviour of a very small number of people stop us from this.”

Asked why so many fans were allowed to swig from bottles and cans in the city's streets and parks, Sir Richard said: “It would have been impossible to stop 100,000 Glasgow Rangers fans from drinking. This is something that has never happened in the city before and is extremely unlikely to ever happen again.”

Ms Curran defended the police reaction as “measured”. She said that she had been in the control room and had watched the mob chase her officers on monitors. “We had to do something. It was challenging and we were stretched. Our officers did come under a degree of violent attacks.

“I am happy we responded appropriately. We could not let those minor disturbances affect the day for everybody,” she said.

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