Army quells Jamaica unrest

Fighting began after a police raid on Saturday

Violence in the Jamaican capital, Kingston, has subsided after troops backed by helicopter gunships, tanks and armoured vehicles moved in to restore order.

The unrest raged for three days leaving at least 27 people dead.

Minister of Information Maxine Henry-Wilson told the BBC that most of the roadblocks set up by residents in the affected area had now been dismantled, and life would soon be returning to normal.

Clashes broke out near the Tivoli Gardens in the west of the city after a police raid on Saturday to search for guns in an attempt to quell recent gang fighting.

Road blocks have been set up

Residents erected roadblocks - piling up tyres, old vehicles, furniture, and oil drums.

The minister said the authorities would investigate thoroughly allegations that the security forces, a number of whom lost their lives, had fired indiscriminately at people.

Opposition Labour Party leader Edward Seaga says the police raids were aimed at hurting his supporters.

The unrest has had a serious effect on life, and death, in Jamaica.

Kingston's cemetery has been closed by the violence - reporters said that the stench of bodies rotting in one funeral parlour was unbearable.

The blood bank was also out of blood, officials said on Tuesday.

Tourists unaffected

Even in parts of the city not affected by the violence, the streets are unusually quiet - many shops and banks are closed and people have been staying at home.

Anyone who tried to move got shot at. It's pure murder from both ends ... the police and the gangs

Claudia McKay, local resident

But the violence did not spread to the more affluent hotel district of the capital or popular resorts of Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and Negril, which are the heart of Jamaica's tourist industry.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, still plan to visit Jamaica as part of a trip to the region at the end of the month, his spokesman said in London, while acknowledging the violence was a cause for concern.

International aid

Prime Minister PJ Patterson announced on Monday night that he was calling out the army to help police restore calm.

The army was called in on Monday

"The government cannot stand idly by and allow criminal elements to hold this country to ransom," Mr Patterson said.

He said the former British colony was also asking other countries for help, although he did not give details, and added that he hoped to restore law and order "very swiftly".

Children and the elderly are amongst those who have been killed in the gun battles

"Anyone who tried to move got shot at. It's pure murder from both ends... the police and the gangs," said 23-year-old Claudia McKay, a local seamstress.

Bodies left to rot

Fears of getting caught in fresh gunfire meant that the bodies of some victims had lain in the streets for up to three days, but they had apparently all been cleared by Tuesday.

"Even in war you are able to pick up your dead. We have bodies lying on the streets for three days rotting," said the Reverend Herro Blair of the Jamaica Council of Churches. "It is unimaginable."

There have been no reports of tourists leaving, but a new US travel advisory against western and downtown Kingston raised worries the disturbances could hurt Jamaica's vital $1.3 bn tourism industry.

The UK Foreign Office has advised citizens against travelling to areas where demonstrations have been reported, though it stressed that resorts on the north coast like Montego Bay were not affected.

However, it warned travellers to take care on the road to and from Kingston airport, where there may be road blocks and fuel shortages.