Ja­maica has record­ed 34 mur­ders dur­ing the first 11 days of this year, ac­cord­ing to fig­ures re­leased by the Ja­maica Con­stab­u­lary Force (JCF).

It said that the fig­ure is a 30.8 per cent in­crease for the same pe­ri­od last year when 26 mur­ders were record­ed.

Ac­cord­ing to the JCF, St. Cather­ine South and St. An­drew South record­ed five mur­ders, a 400 per cent in­crease over the last year, while St. An­drew South saw a 300 per cent in­crease, reg­is­ter­ing four mur­ders.

The JCF has since im­posed a 48-hour cur­few in the en­tire Kingston West­ern, St An­drew Cen­tral, St An­drew South and St Cather­ine South di­vi­sions fol­low­ing an es­ca­la­tion in mur­ders dur­ing the pe­ri­od Jan­u­ary 5-11 when 29 mur­ders were recored­ed.

The JCF fig­ures show a 12.9 per cent de­cline in shoot­ings with 27 be­ing record­ed as against 31 for the same pe­ri­od.

Last year, Ja­maica record­ed a to­tal of 1,139 mur­ders, a 19 per cent de­cline when com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year.

KINGSTON, Ja­maica, Jan 13, CMC