Riot police fired tear gas to control a mob that burned cars and looted shops in Vancouver last night after the Canucks ice hockey team lost the Stanley Cup final.
Thousands of people had jammed into the heart of the city in the hopes of celebrating the Canucks' first Stanley Cup but the party scene descended into violence after the Boston Bruins emerged with a 4-0 victory.
The ugly scenes brought back memories of a riot that broke out when Vancouver also lost the Stanley Cup in 1994 as groups of mostly young men threw bottles, attacking parked cars and smashed store windows.
"There was a group of people fully intending to make this into a 1994 event," Mayor Gregor Robertson told reporters, saying a group of "angry young men" had decided to disrupt an otherwise peaceful event.
Hospital officials said several people had been treated for stab wounds and many more for exposure to tear gas or pepper spray. Police have not released any information on how many people had been arrested.
At least a half dozen cars were set alight, including two police cars. Many more had been overturned or had their windows smashed. Several shops had also been looted or damaged.
The crowd thinned by the early hours this morning but some continued to try to destroy property as police in riot gear attempted to contain them in a small area of the city centre.
The scenes were in sharp contrast to those after the 2010 Winter Olympics, when a massive street party erupted in the same area after Canada beat the United States to win the men's ice hockey gold medal.