JAMAICA LABOUR Party (JLP) supporters scrambled on Friday when a barrage of gunshots were allegedly fired at them while they marched along West Avenue in the St. Andrew South Western constituency.

George 'Father Binns' Duhaney, the JLP contender for the Greenwich Town division, had been nominated at the Greenwich Town Primary School before the shooting occurred.

The first shot was heard while the throng of flag waving supporters was walking along the avenue. Within ten seconds, three more shots were fired and then a series of explosions rang out. "The shot just miss barely miss mi," an obviously shaken Duhaney said. "I saw the guy with the gun, him fire from behind a wall an' then him come out right in front of me," he said. But, according to Duhaney, the trigger man was accompanied by at least three other men. No one was injured in the incident.

JLP supporters who later converged on East Avenue, accused the police of forfeiting their agreement to escort them throughout the march.

But Claude Samuels, Superintendent in charge of. St. Andrew South Police Division said, "police officers were in the area". However The Gleaner observed two patrol vehicles on West Avenue only after the explosions had subsided.

Superintendent Samuels said the police have since commenced an investigation into the incident, however, he said preliminary investigations reveal that the shots were fired in the air and not at the JLP supporters.

The JLP supporters also alleged that the shooting was part of a plan mobilised by the People's National Party to intimidate them.

Member of Parliament for St. Andrew South Western, Portia Simpson Miller, who had accompanied three of the PNP's contenders to the Greenwich Town Nomination centre told The Gleaner that she was not aware of the shooting incident. She also dismissed the JLP's claims that persons were mobilised to intimidate them. "Why didn't they inform the police and not allow it to happen if they knew (that there was a plan to intimidate them)?" queried Mrs. Simpson Miller.