"There have been rapes, there has been gang warfare because they have all the different street gangs in there"

AS New Orleans disintegrated in lawlessness and mayhem, a horrifying picture emerged of the squalor, rape and gunfire battles in the stadium over the past four days.

Some 25,000 people - many of whom lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina - hunkered down with little food and little water, overflowing toilets, stifling heat and the unbearable stench of human waste.

Children slept in pools of urine. Crack vials littered the bathrooms. Bloodstains smeared the walls near vending machines that had been pried open. Gunfire has ricocheted down the corridors.

There were two reports of rape, one involving a child. Three people died - one a man who jumped to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for.

Irishman Jim Lally, whose son Conor was caught up in chaotic attempts to evacuate New Orleans, said he had been holed up in horrendous conditions in the city's Superdome.

"They have seen sights which were indescribable to be honest.

"There have been rapes, there has been gang warfare in the Superdome because they have all the different street gangs in there.

"It is full of people off the street, people of the night, homeless people and alcoholics so on like that, drug addicts who are not getting their drugs and they are not getting their alcohol. You can only just think of what they could be getting up to you know."

"We pee on the floor. We are like animals," Taffany Smith, said holding her three-week-old son.

At one point, a desperate man, who had all the belongings he brought to the Superdome stolen, tried to escape and had to be calmed by National Guards.

Sgt Caleb Wells said: "We had to chase him down. He said he just wanted to get out, to go somewhere. We took him to the terrace and said, 'Look.' "

He saw the floodwaters rising around the stadium. "He didn't realise how bad things are out there. He just broke down. He started bawling."

Police Chief Eddie Compass said there was such a crush around a squad of 88 officers they retreated when they went in to check out reports of assaults.

"We have individuals getting raped, we have individuals getting beaten. Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon."

A military helicopter tried to land several times to drop off food and water. But the rushing crowd forced it to back off. Troopers tossed supplies to the crowd from 10 feet off the ground and flew away.

Daniel Edwards, 47, said: "There's a lot of very sick people - elderly ones, infirm ones - who can't stand this heat, and there's a lot of children who don't have water and basic necessities to survive on. We need to eat, or drink."

Supplies were dangerously low, with one mother saying officials told her to reuse diapers.

The dome's water supply gave out Wednesday, and toilets began to overflow, filling the cavernous stadium with a nauseating smell.

One man said: "There is faeces all over the place."

No electricity in New Orleans meant no air conditioning in the dome, and a horrible, muggy heat. Emergency lights worked intermittently as engineers struggled to keep generators running.

Local legend has it the 73,000-seat stadium was built atop a cemetery, cursing the football team that calls it home - the Saints - to an eternity as cellar-dwellers. Some trapped inside believe in the curse.

April Thomas, there with her 11 children, said: "This is a nuthouse. You have to fend people off constantly. You have to fight for your life. I wake up in the morning, and the first thing I say is: 'Where are my babies? Is everyone here?' "

A bustling black market has emerged, with cigarettes, at $10 a pack, and anti-diuretics, which help forestall going to the bathroom, hot items.

When buses finally arrived, a desperate group of refugees broke loose from a cordon of National Guards, but were stopped by police toting machine guns. Officer KW Miller said: "This is ready to break. We've been here since 6am, and this is getting worse and worse."

Huge crowds jammed the concourse outside the dome hoping to get on the buses to the Astrodome in Houston, 350 miles away. Fights broke out. A fire erupted in a trash chute inside the dome, but did not affect the evacuation.

"I would rather have been in jail," Janice Jones said while being taken out of the dome. "I've been in there seven days, and I haven't had a bath. They treated us like animals. Everybody is scared."

Terry Ebbert, head of the city's emergency operations, criticised the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for not offering enough help.