Workers employed to the St James Parish Council armed themselves with sticks and machetes on Sunday, as they waited anxiously to kill scores of rats and c**kroaches in Sam Sharpe Square.

The workers staged an all-out attack against the rodents and insects which ran and flew frantically across the square in a desperate bid to save themselves, with the workers in hot pursuit.

It started out as a normal day last Sunday, when the workers went to prune some 20 trees in the square, which had been home to hundreds of blackbirds for years. The birds had become a nuisance, frequently defecating on passersby and on the cutstone walkway.

The exercise continued this Sunday, when the workers returned to cut down the trees and uproot them, as they had grown out of control.

One workman, Simon, used a power saw to cut down the trees, and it soon became clear he was disturbing nests of rats, c**kroaches and centipedes inside the tree trunks.

c**kroaches flew wildly in the air. In one trunk, 13 rats were slaughtered, while in another, seven newborn rodents were killed while their mother hid deep inside the tree trunk, peeping through a tiny hole, as the offsprings were being killed.

"Well, you are charged for breeding and littering the town and for that we must hang unoo," Simon uttered, as he used a machete to kill the rats.

Meanwhile, the workmen said new trees are to be replanted in the square which will be regularly maintained.

Horticulturist Anika Atkinson said uncleanliness have resulted in the rodents making the trees their homes.

And with so many food establishments in and around Sam Sharpe Square, concerns have been echoed that an intensive eradication programme needs to be undertaken immediately to rid the town of rats and c**kroaches before the situation becomes unmanageable.

Name changed on request.