GLASGOW’s bid to host the Commonwealth Games could be damaged by a Canadian documentary portraying the city as awash with gangland violence.

One million viewers in the North American country watched harrowing scenes of teenage assaults in Scotland’s largest city.

The shocking images were part of what the programme called the city’s “public health catastrophe”.

But the show has raised eyebrows as the Canadian city Halifax is competing with Glasgow to land the 2014 games.

Insiders on the Scottish team are worried members of the judging panel may be put off the bid if they are to watch the chaotic scenes.

The controversy follows the screening earlier this month of The Feral Boys of Glasgow on CBC, the Canadian equivalent of the BBC.

It explored gang violence and the effects of knife crime on the city, confronting viewers with Glasgow’s shocking statistics on life expectancy, unemployment and ill-health.

The show’s billing stated: “In Canada, we tend to think of gang violence as something imported from the US. American culture is filled with music, music videos and movies depicting the ‘thug life’. But there is another place where gang culture is a fixture, and has been for over 100 years: Glasgow, Scotland.”

Fronted by Canadian journalist Carole McNeil, the programme opened with her saying: “I’ll take you to a very dangerous place. Not Iraq or Afghanistan, but Glasgow. When the sun goes down, the feral boys come out.”

It referred to Glasgow as “one of the most dangerous cities in the developed world” and showed a gang of youths assaulting a young boy with a machete.

The documentary interviewed members of a Glasgow gang, one of whom said: “It’s not just a gang, it’s a way of life.”

It also claimed gang violence had its roots in deprived areas but “often spills on to the streets of downtown”. The mayhem, which the show said involved 2000 boys and young men, was described as a “public health catastrophe”.

In addition, CBC interviewed a woman who lost her brother to gang violence and used BBC footage from the 1960s to argue that the problem is the same now as it was decades ago.

The team of journalists also interviewed local politicians and knife shop owner Martin Morris for their views on Glasgow’s crime epidemic.

But the centrepiece of the documentary was the contribution from chief superintendent John Carnochan, who fronts the Scotland-wide Violence Reduction Unit.

He explained why Glasgow has problems with “recreational violence and territorialism” and said they formed a public health problem, rather than simply a criminal justice issue.

The hard-hitting documentary ended with gang members chanting: “If you hate the f***ing police, clap your hand!”

The programme will worry Glasgow’s local leaders because it challenges the city’s image of modernity and vibrancy.

In the last year, Glasgow’s knife culture saw around 3300 knives and weapons being seized by police. Scotland-wide, more than 1400 people were discharged from hospital in 2004-05 after being treated for a blade-related injury.

Ministers responded to the crisis by doubling the maximum penalty for carrying a knife in public, while also raising the minimum age for buying a blade. A knife amnesty this summer saw 13,000 weapons being handed in to police.

The programme is unlikely to help Glasgow as it attempts to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games, as the last thing city bosses want are images of machete-wielding thugs being broadcast around the world.

There are also suspicions about why the programme was broadcast in a country that has most to benefit from negative portrayals of Glasgow.

Halifax, which is in Nova Scotia, is regarded as one of the main threats to Glasgow landing the Games.

Both teams clashed earlier this year after Scott Logan, who is fronting the Halifax bid, said the Scottish team’s chances could be harmed by London staging the Olympics in 2012.

The show is also unlikely to help further the first minister’s goal of wooing Canadian Scots back to their home country.

Jack McConnell visited Canada last year as a way of promoting Scotland as a welcoming place in which to live and work.

He said: “We know there are many with an affinity for Scotland, who feel that part of their soul is there. We would want them to come back and visit, or to call it home.”

But Canadian Bruce DeVenne, who is the lead spokesman against Halifax hosting the games, said the show portrayed Glasgow as a “riot scene” and said it would damage the city’s Commonwealth Games hopes: “If I was watching that, I would vote for somebody else. They were talking to these punks on the street, [who] were holding up their shirts showing their knife scars. We have got them over here, too, but not in the number that you seem to have them.”

He added: “I found it a strange coincidence that, at this point in time, when we are competing against Glasgow, they had this show on.”

In an interview with the Sunday Herald, Carole McNeil said she made the show after being made aware of Glasgow’s social problems.

She said she wanted to “de-racialise” gangland violence and explore why the city was suffering from the blight: “I found low levels of education, one in six households wholly unemployed and the highest levels of single mums, lung disease, heart disease and depression.

“When you put that picture together, you think no wonder these kids are on the periphery. There’s no aspiration. That was the thesis of the documentary.”

Asked about the conclusions she reached on gangs after visiting Glasgow, McNeil said: “It is a serious problem, otherwise there wouldn’t be this violence reduction unit. Otherwise there wouldn’t be all these statistics. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a bunch of legislation and social commitments to try to change it. That’s the conclusion.”

She also joked about her reaction to watching the programme’s final cut: “I thought that I won’t be working for the Glaswegian tourist board”.