They weren’t the entire school population, but the students who turned up at Ascot High School in Portmore, St Catherine yesterday morning to sit a Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) History examination found themselves exposed to grave danger during a deadly firefight between police and three gunmen.

The gunfight delayed the start of the exam, as the students and invigilators were given time to recover from the shocking experience. But the education ministry said it would send counsellors to the school to “help those students and members of staff traumatised by the shooting”.

The Constabulary Communication Network did not identify the gunman shot dead by cops in the incident, but police on the ground said he was a member of the notorious Klansman gang that has been unleashing intermittent bouts of terror on residents and businesses in Spanish Town, St Catherine for more than six years.

Head of the St Catherine South Police Division, Deputy Superintendent Carlos Bell, said the gunmen gained the cops’ attention after they shot and injured a resident in the nearby 6 West community yesterday morning.

The resident was shot in the neck and shoulder but escaped his attackers in a Toyota motorcar.

“The police went to investigate the explosions and saw the Toyota motorcar speeding away and a silver Suzuki Vitara travelling behind it in an apparent chase,” Bell told the Observer. “The police then started focusing on the Vitara, which turned onto the school compound where the gunmen alighted and started shooting at the police.”

He said the police returned the fire and the gunmen ran in separate directions. One of them was later found in an empty classroom with gunshot wounds.

Police said he was taken to hospital where he died. However, eyewitnesses said the gunman died in the classroom.

Police said they seized a 9mm Glock pistol from the gunman before he died.

The other men escaped.

Yesterday, as investigators processed the scene, traumatised teachers and students gathered outside the school discussing the frightening incident.

Only students sitting examinations were on the compound as the rest of the school was on mid-term holidays.

“It was just pure gunshots firing, it was like a movie,” said a member of the school administration who was still shaking with fright when he spoke to the Observer. “It appears he (the dead gunman) did not know the school ’cause he was running all over the place. The fortunate thing about it is that all the students were supposed to attend school today but we decided to give them the early weekend to let the ones with exams get the space. It would have been worse if the over 600 students were out here when this happened today.”

He said one student had an asthma attack, while a teacher fainted as the guns barked in the schoolyard. They had to be taken for medical attention afterwards, he said.

Yesterday, more than a dozen shell casings were removed from the scene by the police.

Worried parents and onlookers also congregated outside the school as the police processed the crime scene.

“Yes man, is so the police should kill them man. Too many gunmen start harbour in Portmore now,” said one man in the crowd. “But I don’t really like how the police them deal with it; they shouldn’t kill the man on the compound. Too much trauma for the children.”

Yesterday, the Ministry of Education, in a release to the media, expressed relief that no student or invigilator was injured during the shooting.