The day began with a quiet optimism that Manchester would not be hit by rampaging youths intent on chaos, writes Paul Britton.

But as the hours wore on, a tense and uneasy atmosphere filled the streets.

By nightfall, I witnessed scenes I thought I would never see. It was hard to comprehend why people were doing what they were doing and at times, it was a truly terrifying place to be.

Manchester city centre was gripped by fear and transformed into ugliness.

Riot police and dog vans formed at Piccadilly Gardens after lunch, but there was no trouble. Children continued to splash around in the water fountain and on Market Street, brass bands played outside stores. All was calm.

Within hours, shops on Market Street began to board up windows as reports filtered through that the Arndale Centre was closed after rioters apparently attempted to enter a store.

I moved to the top of Market Street and saw young children running in gangs wearing masks and balaclavas.

It was unclear where they were running to and where from, but crowds of terrified people were caught up in their wake.

At New Cathedral Street, a window was smashed at the UGG store. Around the corner at Marks and Spencer, the front glass door was shattered.

We were told that staff and shoppers were locked inside stores for their own protection.

Further up Market Street, windows were smashed at the Manchester City store and at travel agent Thomas Cook.

Gangs continued to maraud up Market Street until riot police moved in with shields.

The street was blocked off at the top, but it appeared that gangs were running from place to place across the city centre.

Eventually, after a fire at Miss Selfridge, police on horseback closed the street.

There were huge rushes of running people wherever you turned. Groups would shout then run around corners to where you were standing.

To be caught up in the middle was terrifying.

At St Ann's Square, shop windows were smashed while yobs hurled rocks at a passing police van and a car.

Jewellery stores were also targeted, including Swarovski, where a man was seen lying face down on the smashed store window covered in blood.

Riot police with shields ushered everyone away and crowds swarmed along Deansgate, where one thug hurled an object at the windows of Kendals.

As I walked back towards Piccadilly, shops on Portland Street had been emptied and ransacked. Men carrying large plastic bags full of bottles of alcohol clinked past.

The atmosphere, filled with police sirens, screams and shouting, was as horrible as it was dangerous. Yobs covering their faces laughed as they ran around the streets, and others just seemed to be along for the ride.

The most saddening sight of a night will stay with me forever was at the ransacked Dawsons music store on Portland Street, where a shattered window lay across a grand piano.

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This is what anarchy must be like . . .

A TRACK-suited youth poses with a can of looted lager at his lips for a photograph that I imagine he must believe will be a treasured snap, writes John Scheerhout.

His friend carefully frames the shot and takes the picture with his camera phone, taking care to include a burning car in the background.

The stricken car is the only vehicle in the car park of Lidl supermarket near Fitzwarren Street on Salford's Pendleton estate.

The supermarket looks like it too will be going up in flames soon having been emptied during the previous 30 minutes by the avaricious looters. All around me young men are carrying cases of looted gear under their arms.

Others have Lidl carrier bags to take home their loot.

The street is filled with people, many of them young men, and the atmosphere is wild. The police are nowhere to be seen.

"Where's the cops?," one young man asks his mate, however without any note of concern that his community is being destroyed in front of his own eyes.

For that questioner, the arson and looting were not crimes that should be stopped but bait for the main catch of the day – the riot police.

Earlier, I had watched dozens of young lads hurl heavy rocks at officers from the Crack Tactical Aid Unit of Greater Manchester Police.

I think to myself this is what anarchy must be like. In 18 years of reporting in the city, I had never witnessed anything like this.

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