MEMBERS of the security forces were forced to retreat this morning after gunmen opened at them as they tried to clear a roadblock at Oxford Street in Downtown Kingston.

"Law men went to the area to clear a road block in the community when they came under heavy gunfire," a police officer at the Hannah Town police station told the Observer.

Meanwhile police at the Mountain View Police Post reported that they had received threats that thugs aligned to Tivoli Gardens' don Christopher 'Dudus' Coke were planing to fire bomb the post.

"We have been receiving a number of  threats since this morning from men who say they are planning to carry out an attack and firebomb our station but we are on the lookout," said one cop.

The police could not confirm reports that men armed with high-powered assault rifles were roaming sections of Mountain View Avenue.

The roving Observer news team drove the entire length of Mountain View Avenue and noticed only a tense calm.