Accompanied by members of their private protection team, they had expected to head straight back to their friend’s house on the Upper East Side but are understood to have felt they were immediately tailed by a “gang” of around a dozen paparazzi on motorcycles, scooters and in vehicles.

In order to try and lose them, they are said to have been driven across 57th St and other streets for around 75 minutes, escorted at all times by an NYPD police car.

Their driver attempted various attempts to use decoys, to divert the photographers or to shake them off, including one in which sources said police officers were almost run over, prompting them to attend the police station.

Those involved are understood to have been confronted by uniformed police on multiple occasions but continued the pursuit.

The images appeared overnight on MailOnline but were later taken down. The Duke has two outstanding legal actions against the website’s publisher, Associated News Limited; one over allegations concerning phone hacking and other unlawful information gathering and the other concerning a Mail on Sunday story about his case against the Home Office.

In a video posted by the celebrity news website TMZ, the Duke and Duchess could be seen in a yellow Toyota taxi with a bodyguard in the front passenger seat, as several photographers took photos with flashes going off constantly.

Harry was in the rear left passenger seat, filming everything on his mobile phone.

‘Started with 12, ended with four’

The taxi driver who picked up the Sussexes and Ms Ragland outside the 19 precinct police station in Manhattan, at around 11pm, said they were in his car for around 10 minutes. 

Sukhcharn Singh, 37, said their couple’s security guard waved him down and asked: “Do you want a fare?” He said he drove the group a block and a half west to Park Avenue before heading south.

“They had this look on their faces,” Mr Singh said. “All of a sudden paparazzi came out and started taking pictures.”

One source told the New York Post: “It started off with 12 paparazzi then ended up with four.”

Mr Singh told the BBC suggestions of a “near catastrophic chase” might have been exaggerated. He said he did not think the paparazzi were being “aggressive”.

“New York is the safest place to be – there’s police stations, cops on every corner,” he said. “[The paparazzi] were behind us… they kept their distance.”