President of Trinidad and Tobago, Christine Carla Kangaloo, on the advice of Prime Minister Keith Rowley, has declared a state of emergency due to escalating gang violence.

The declaration by the president gives the police the power to arrest people on suspicion of involvement in crimes, as well as “search and enter both public and private premises as necessary” and suspend bail.

The prime minister’s office said the move would address “individuals who pose a threat to public safety, particularly those involved in criminal activities and the illegal use of firearms.”

At a news conference on Monday, the country’s acting attorney general, Stuart Young, said, “The declaration and calling of a public state of emergency is something that is not taken lightly.”

Mr Young disclosed that the police service “dictated and mandated the necessity of this extreme action that we took this morning.”

The declaration followed the killing of five men shot dead in a shop in Laventille, Port of Spain, the country’s capital, on Sunday. According to the police, the killings, which were in reprisal for the murder of a prominent gang member the previous day, later witnessed six people being fired at, five of whom died.

“There can be expected heightened reprisal activities by the criminal elements in and around certain places in Trinidad and Tobago that immediately warranted and took us out of what we can consider the norm,” Mr Young stated.

“But I can say, throughout Trinidad and possibly Tobago, [criminal gangs] are likely to immediately increase their brazen acts of violence in reprisal shootings on a scale so extensive that it threatens persons and will endanger public safety.”