CLARENDON, Jamaica— Four men have been taken into custody following a shoot-out with the police in Four Paths, Clarendon on Monday afternoon.

The incident followed an armed robbery in Manchester, culminating at the intersection of the Bustamante Highway and the Four Paths main road where the gunmen alighted the get-away vehicle and engaged the police in a gun battle.

According to the police, the men had committed two cases of robbery in the Manchester area and in their bid to escape were cornered in Clarendon.

Commanding Officer for the Manchester police division Superintendent Gary Francis said “an alert was sent out and the police upon making several enquiries, spotted a vehicle fitting the description of the getaway vehicle in the Porus area and signalled them to stop. The driver disobeyed and were pursued by the cops into Clarendon. All four men, two of whom have been injured are all of Corporate Area addresses.

A quantity of stolen items have been recovered, the police said.

“We continue to appeal to the citizens to engage us early and to say to the would-be robbers that we have no space in area 3 for them and if they come into our space to commit robberies, they will be caught and be brought to justice” Superintendent Francis warned.

The commanding officer noted that the police has recognized that in recent times a number of crimes have been committed by ‘outsiders’ and so the team has had to strengthen its border patrols to ensure that they reduce, minimize and eliminate this type of occurrence. “We have also realized that the registration plates on the vehicle do not correspond which would indicate that the robbers want to deceive both their victims and the police, but we continue to police our space with a level of alertness and to reassure our citizens and also to say to the would-be robbers that we have no place in Area 3 for robbers” he said.