There was high drama yesterday morning just outside the Rusea's High School, Lucea, Hanover, when three robbers, who had held up a ninth-grader, in a bid to escape, jumped into the sea and swam hundreds of metres before being chased and captured by the police.

Eyewitness reports are that the male student and a friend were taking a short cut through an open lot adjoining the school compound, when they were held up. One of the boys ran off leaving the other who was subsequently cut on his upper arm by one of the men. The boy eventually ran into the schoolyard bleeding.

Students, vendors and other citizens who realised what had happened, chased the men hurling stones and other missiles at them. The men fled and jumped into the sea. In an attempt to prevent them from returning to shore, the students who had just commenced their Jamaica Day celebrations, lined the coastline.

Traffic in the area piled up for close to an hour as curious persons converged to get a glimpse of the men. The Lucea police were called and a boat went for the men.

Rohan Reid, Constabulary Communication Network's liaison officer for Hanover, said two of the men had swim far out to sea while the third, who apparently became tired, had turned back and was found sitting on a piece of coral reef a few hundred metres out.

The men, who are from Haughton Court addresses, have not yet been formally charged. Reid said two teenagers, a 16 and a 19-year-old, were among those captured. It is said that there were also other robberies in the same vicinity recently.