Are you in a girl gang but just don't know it?

The rowdiest troublemakers on the streets are not teenage hoodies. They are professional, sensible young women, just like you

It didn¿t stop at Manchester: Take That fans letting off steam in Cardiff

Ascot used to be about racing, now it¿s all-day drinking that¿s attracting the crowds

TT fans get refreshed in Manchester

The stewards at the Take That concert couldn't believe their eyes. They had dealt with football hooligans, rowdy teenagers and heavy metal headbangers, but this was to be their toughest night on duty yet: controlling a drunken, aggressive throng of 30-something women.

Over eight nights in Manchester last month, the city's police and ambulance services were stretched to their limits, as women threw bricks at cars, openly urinated in public, fought with each other and collapsed in the streets.
But these were no beer-swilling ladettes: these were normal, respectable women, who'd greedily guzzled the £18 plastic bottles of wine sold inside the stadium. With shocking consequences.
"I was actually scared," said one burly steward who works at the stadium.
"Women you'd normally see in a suit or pushing a buggy during the day were behaving like football hooligans, spitting, swearing and fighting."
You're probably shaking your head in disgust at these women, and rightly so.
But stop for a second and think. If you'd been able to see yourself on a night out on the town with your friends recently, would you have been appalled at your own behaviour?
Of course you may not have been arrested, like 24 Take That fans in Manchester were, or as wild as the concert-goers in Cardiff (pictured, above).
And you may not have got into a catfight or fallen over in the street. But picture you and your friends, smashed after one too many vinos or happy-hour cocktails.
Maybe you wobbled from bar to nightclub in your stilettos, took over the dance floor, were loud, lairy, and a million miles away from your normal behaviour.
Imagine what the passers-by or the bar staff who served you thought of your behaviour.
The truth is, most of us at one time or another run the risk of intimidating others when we're on a girls' night out.
So what makes women who have successful careers, loving, committed relationships and children they adore, behave like they're in a gang of thugs on a night out with their friends?
"When women come together in groups, mob mentality kicks in," says behavioural expert Judi James.
"We 'group think' rather than 'individual think'. And when decisions are group-based, everyone goes along with the collective mood, even if it completely contradicts how they would normally behave.
"Add alcohol to this mix, which pares away inhibitions and suppresses the responsible side of the personality, and you have a recipe for disaster.
"In groups, with the confidence alcohol gives us and a sense of security in our numbers, we behave in a way we never would on our own," says Judi.
"It's pretty scary. The irony is that many would tut over their own behaviour if they read about it in the newspapers.
"Behaviour that they may well have been guilty of themselves the night before, but maybe can't remember now."

Out of control

Binge drinking among women is nothing new, nor is women going out in large groups - so what explains the upsurge in aggressive behaviour?
Police figures reveal that the number of women arrested for being drunk and disorderly has increased by more than 50 per cent since 2003, while a report by the Ministry of Justice showed arrests of women and girls for violent crimes is also up around 50 per cent from 2003. That's the equivalent of 240 attacks by women every day.
According to medical sociologist Dr Patsy Staddon, a number of circumstances have come together to create the perfect storm, which results in intimidating drunken female behaviour.
"Women who are respectable during the day can spiral out of control at night for a number of reasons," she says.
"Firstly, women are settling down into motherhood and marriage much later than our mothers did. We're enjoying an extended adolescence. At 30, our mothers were lucky if they got out once a month. Now many women go out a couple of times a week.
"Secondly, it's become more socially acceptable for women to get drunk in public, and the lack of that taboo often results in overindulgence.
"Thirdly, there is the 'hen-party effect': when women go out with men they tend to behave in a more ladylike fashion to impress them, but when it's 'girls only' their behaviour can deteriorate.
"Lastly, women who lead stressful lives juggling work and children may feel the need to let off steam - and they do that via alcohol."
According to the charity Drinkaware, a third of women drink more than the recommended 14 units a week. And while our mothers' generation might have been content with half a lager and lime, now wine accounts for 60 per cent of the alcohol women consume.
Dr Staddon also warns that women have little appreciation of the strength of the drinks they're enjoying.
She says: "A large glass of wine contains three units of alcohol, compared to two units in a bottle of beer. So women often consume more powerful drinks than men, yet their bodies aren't as well-equipped to deal with the alcohol."
Even traditionally genteel events like a day at the races have become breeding grounds for 'girl-gang' behaviour. These girls may be wearing fascinators instead of hoodies, but their behaviour is no less threatening to those around them.
Last month on Ladies' Day at Royal Ascot, a 24-year-old woman was arrested for being drunk and disorderly, and a group of women decked out in their finery fought with eight men, armed with chair legs and bottles. It was behaviour more associated with ASBO youths than ladies in their 30s.
Are these new 'girl gangs' simply a case of hardworking women letting their hair down? Or do they represent a more worrying trend? The police, A&E staff and Take That stewards could probably tell you what they think...