As many as 10,000 people, most of them students, filled the central business district along Forbes Avenue after the Steelers' Super Bowl victory on Sunday night. Rowdy revelers lit fires, knocked over trees, smashed windows and decapitated parking meters.

"It's a game. It's OK to party. But to destroy people's property -- that isn't right," said Aaron Marks, 36, a cook at the Original Hot Dog Shop, which had two broken windows.

The crowd was about double the size expected by law enforcement officials, according to Pittsburgh Police Cmdr. Scott Schubert, who was at a command post in Oakland on Sunday.

Citywide, police made at least 83 arrests after the game, with 56 in Oakland and just 12 on the South Side.

The most frequent charge was failure to disperse, but there were also arrests for arson, drugs, aggravated assault, DUI and disorderly conduct.

Three years ago, after the Steelers won Super Bowl XL, the largest crowds gathered on East Carson Street on the South Side, and police focused heavily on that area this year, deploying most of the city SWAT team.

There were also 150 officers in Oakland as the game came to an end, including city police, state troopers, Allegheny County police and uniformed officers from both the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.

At first, police tried to contain the celebrations along Forbes Avenue. They started to break up the crowds and make arrests as soon as revelers began to light fires and damage property.

Backup police units arrived from other parts of the city. Officers on horseback moved from Schenley Drive toward the crowd along Forbes Avenue, scattering hundreds of people.

Cmdr. Schubert said most people left the area by 12:30 a.m., and the streets reopened around 1 a.m.

There were reports of about 40 fires throughout Oakland after the game, with blazes in garbage cans, couches, large trash bins and automobiles. Other vehicles were overturned.

Revelers threw bottles at several officers. One officer injured his arm while making an arrest.

However, There were no major injuries among police or the crowds.

Sean Golden, 21, a Pitt junior from Philadelphia, said he could smell burning garbage throughout the evening.

"It was unbelievable," he said. "I'm not a Steelers fan, so I was just watching."

He works at Bruegger's Bagels, which had a wooden board covering a broken window yesterday. At least one person was arrested in the vandalism.

Most of the debris along Forbes Avenue had been swept away by yesterday afternoon, but overturned trees still flanked the entrance to the Hillman Library.

Late yesterday, Pitt spokesman John Fedele said the university did not yet have a statement and that it was too soon to discuss possible sanctions against students who had been arrested.

He indicated that still and video footage shot by news organizations and others that were posted on the Internet would be part of the investigation by the university and its campus police.

"We will use all means necessary to identify individuals," he said.

Pitt did not have an estimate of damage to its property.

Officials with Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne universities said they had no reports of either arrests of their students or damage on their campuses.

In other parts of the city, police dispersed a crowd of several hundred people on Brookline Boulevard.

A window was shattered at the Commonwealth Bank at 4900 Liberty Ave. in Bloomfield. No entry was made into the bank, police said.

Between 6:30 p.m. Sunday and 1 a.m. yesterday, nearly 1,500 emergency calls were answered in Allegheny County.