SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

With this coun­try's mur­der rate now at record break­ing lev­els, the Prime Min­is­ter has con­vened a meet­ing of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil.

In a pho­to post­ed to his Face­book page, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced that he had giv­en in­struc­tions "ear­ly last week" for the coun­cil to meet on Mon­day morn­ing.

The pho­to shows the Prime Min­is­ter and sev­er­al mem­bers of his Cab­i­net, in­clud­ing En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert and Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter, Mar­vin Gon­za­les, among oth­ers, seat­ed around a ta­ble.

The Gov­ern­ment has been un­der con­sid­er­able pres­sure from civ­il so­ci­ety, the Op­po­si­tion Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress and cit­i­zens to curb what has been de­scribed as a "crime pan­dem­ic" as the mur­der rate soared over 500 on Sat­ur­day.

By Sun­day night, that num­ber was 505 and sev­er­al overnight mur­ders would have pushed the toll to 508 by noon on Mon­day.