A few businesses were opened in Spanish Town yesterday and classes resumed at some schools as normality slowly began to return to the town, which was locked down by rioting members and supporters of the notorious Clansman gang on Monday.

Although a 14-hour curfew mounted in sections of Spanish Town was lifted at 8:00 a m yesterday, residents defied the curfew and blocked roads in some sections of the town just hours before the curfew was lifted.

Police said two women were arrested for blocking roads yesterday 10 others were detained during the curfew. Up to last night no charges had been laid against the detainees.

Roadblocks were mounted yesterday in Thompson Pen, Waterloo Close and King Street, sections of the Spanish Town bypass road and sections of Young Street. But while the police cleared the blockage, residents played a cat-and-mouse game by remounting road blocks as often as the police cleared them.

Assistant commissioner of police Arthur “Stitch” Martin, the officer in charge of Area 5, said the police experienced problems in March Pen Road, Rivoli and Brunswick Avenue, areas with strong support for the ruling People’s National Party. He said a police vehicle was damaged in Rivoli when a huge rock was thrown onto its windscreen.

Members of the Clansman gang were protesting Sunday’s police killing of their leader Donovan “Bulbie” Bennett, who police say was wanted for almost 100 murders, robberies and extortion committed over a two year period.

Martin said the police continued to be tough on people caught blocking roads and gave strict instructions to officers anyone caught blocking roads must be arrested and charged.

In the meantime, Police Superintendent Kenneth Wade said although the curfew was lifted, strong security presence would continue to be maintained in the town.

At the same time, Security Minister Peter Phillips told Parliament that the security forces would remain in place for as long as is necessary to return Spanish Town to a state of normality.

Phillips was responding to a request from Opposition spokesman on security, Derrick Smith, that he update the House on the situation in Spanish Town after 48 hours of intervention by the security forces.

“The security forces are in there in great numbers. A curfew was instituted in sections of the town last night (Monday). The security forces will remain in place for as long as is necessary,” Phillips said.

The issue came up during the debate on amendments to the Larceny Act.

But despite the assurance from the police, the town centre was a ghost town yesterday as taxis and buses deserted the terminus and convened further down Burke Road in the vicinity of the Spanish Town General Hospital, causing traffic congestion.

On Monday protesters set ablaze the police post in the Bus terminus. Police told the Observer the bus drivers and taxi drivers refused to use the bus terminus yesterday claiming it was situated in a crime-prone area and there was no police protection there.

Owners of the few businesses which opened yesterday, who declined to be identified for fear of being targeted, said since January nine working days have been lost due to violence.

“Our businesses are severely affected by the violence because consumers are afraid to come out to shop because they are not sure what will happen to them, whether they will be robbed in the plazas or be caught up in wild shootings by criminal gunmen.

“We have serious investment in business here and we are loosing business because of the violence,” one businessman at St Jago Mall said.