A *lo**y feud is being planned in retaliation to the shooting death of the mother of a well known don in St. Thomas, The Star has been informed.

The woman who was buried on the weekend was killed in Yallahs in the parish early this month. She was killed, sources say, in reprisal of another don's slaying which occurred in the parish in late May.

Information reaching this newspaper are that more than 50 people aligned to another don who was killed in St Thomas last month have been marked for death. Most of the victims we have been told are living in the parish capital, Morant Bay.

There was attempt to commence the attacks last Thursday night, a source told our news team, with an attack on the house of a man in Morant Bay, who is said to be the lieutenant of the don who was killed recently. The man, however, escaped the attack.

"A war a go go on," one informant said, "because (the man who escaped the attack) not going to take it so," the source continued.

St Thomas, formerly a quiet rural parish has been seeing an alarming rise in homicides in recent years. Police admit that all major crimes have gone down except murders, which rose 42 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The Morant Bay police said it had no information of planned reprisal attacks, but said the police would be prepared for any occurrences.

Deputy superintendent in charge of crime in the parish, Carlos Bell, said there was no known rivalry between the two dons.

"I don't have the slightest whim that there might be a reprisal," he said. He said a strong police presence was maintained at the funeral yesterday and the police would be maintaining a strong presence in the parish.