Emergency in Jamaica as drug gang remains defiant

MASKED men set fire to a police station and traded gunfire with security forces in a barricaded slum area in Jamaica's capital last night, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency.

Sporadic gunshots rang out in West Kingston where defiant supporters of Christopher "Dudus" Coke, described by the US Justice Department as one of the world's most dangerous drug lords, have transformed the area into a virtual fortress cut off by trashed cars and barbed wire.

In barricaded Hannah Town, close to Tivoli Gardens, black smoke spiralled into the sky from a police station set aflame by Molotov cocktails. Officers fled the burning station in the impoverished area, where a 2001 stand-off between gunmen and security forces killed 25 civilians, as well as a soldier and a police constable

Jamaican media have reported just two wounded so far: a police officer and a civilian, both hit by gunfire.

Yesterday's violence erupted following a week of ever-higher tensions in the capital over the possible extradition of Coke to the United States on drug and arms-trafficking charges.

After prime minister Bruce Golding reversed his long-standing refusal to extradite Coke, the alleged kingpin's supporters began barricading the streets and preparing for a fight.