Jensen La Vende

Up­date

The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice has is­sued a pub­lic ap­peal for the mem­bers of the pub­lic to help lo­cate two of the prison es­capees iden­ti­fied as Has­san Atwell and Christo­pher Sel­by.

Atwell and Sel­by were among the pris­on­ers who es­caped from the Port-of-Spain Prison ear­li­er to­day.

Po­lice have con­cen­trat­ed their search for the pris­on­ers in the Bel­mont dis­trict.

A third pris­on­er, Al­lan "Scan­ny" Mar­tin was killed by po­lice near the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

A po­lice of­fi­cer who was shot dur­ing the gun­fight has re­port­ed­ly died while un­der­go­ing surgery, po­lice said.

Ear­li­er pan­ic gripped the city af­ter gun­men opened fire on a pass­ing po­lice pa­trol near the Port of Spain prison, on Fred­er­ick Street dur­ing a jail­break.

Eye­wit­ness said the mo­tion­less body was re­moved from the se­cu­ri­ty guard's booth at the en­trance of the hos­pi­tal.

All en­trances and ex­its have been closed ex­cept one at the hos­pi­tal as po­lice search all ve­hi­cles leav­ing.

Solid­ers and sev­er­al units from the Po­lice Ser­vice are at the scene. A Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty he­li­copter is hov­er­ing ahead.

Po­lice are search­ing ar­eas in Bel­mont for the prison es­capees and the gun­men.

Short­ly af­ter noon, po­lice said, sev­er­al gun­men who they be­lieve was wait­ing in front of the prison to es­cort the es­capees.

TTPS com­mu­ni­ca­tions of­fi­cer ASP Michael Pierre said he re­ceived in­for­ma­tion that they were look­ing for two sus­pects "pos­si­bly more" and a man­hunt was launched.

This is a de­vel­op­ing sto­ry. Come back for up­dates