Snipers kill 20 in Jamaica

The Jamaican capital, Kingston, is waking to another day of tension and extraordinary violence

The Jamaican capital, Kingston, faces another day of tension and violence.

Twenty people have died since the weekend - and more than 50 have been taken to hospital with gunshot wounds.

At one point doctors ran out of supplies of blood and closed their doors to new patients.

The opposition leader Edward Seaga has accused the Government of using the security forces to target his supporters.

The Jamaican army are patrolling the capital of Kingston

Many of the civilian deaths have been in areas of city where his Labour Party is strongest, including his own Western Kingston constituency.

The party's website shows five photographs of bodies - apparently civilians - lying in the street.

The Prime Minister, PJ Patterson, responded by accusing Mr Seaga of inciting the trouble.

Elections are not due until next year, but there is a long history of political violence on the island: in 1980, eight hundred people died.

This time Mr Patterson has deployed the army, and some observers say that Kingston is - in effect - under a state of emergency.