As wailing sirens heralded blue and white police vehicles in the capital Port-of-Spain yesterday, thousands of people who work and live in the city rushed to board buses, maxis and taxis to get to safety, after a prison break resulted in a shootout between police and three convicts at noon.
The shootout left two dead, convicted criminal Allan "Scanny" Martin and police officer Sherman Maynard.
Some citizens, like a group of women who had a distance of two miles to travel between work in the city and home in Belmont, walked.
While the Office of Disaster and Preparedness Management (ODPM) issued a release advising citizens not to panic, as the country was under no threat, the reality of businesses hastily closing presented a different perspective yesterday.
"It's crazy but we were expecting something like this to happen with all the shootings recently," said Candace Fraser, a 24-year-old office clerk.
"I was waiting on the taxi stand to take a car but there are too many people waiting on a car to go home and my brother said it doesn't make sense because there are too many cars on the road."
The traffic in Port-of-Spain started before 2 pm as commuters rushed to leave the city. An hour and a half later, the streets in the city were clear of both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
Government ministries and private businesses started sending staff home at around 2 pm.
"I wasn't really in a panic but I was glad when they sent us home. We heard over the news that people were shooting in the street. The first thing I thought was that people were going to panic and I was concerned about reaching home so I took my bag and came to City Gate," one ministry worker said.
She wasn't the only one with that idea. Lines of people snaked around poles and benches at the transportation hub as people waited for PTSC buses to take them to their destinations. Mothers hustled their children across the street and people could be heard on cellphones giving anxious instructions to loved ones to "stay away from town."
Sapphiya Abdullah, a sales clerk at a Charlotte Street store, stood outside her place of employment as her manager placed a padlock on the gate.
"We closed early. There are a lot of people still on the streets but when I heard what was happening my heart started pumping. I just want to go home."
Alfonso: Don't panic
In a brief telephone interview yesterday, National Security Minister Carl Alfonso, who was on his way to a meeting at the National Operations Centre (NOC) at the time, said there was absolutely no need to panic.
Asked about concerns that there needed to be an evacuation plan for the city, Alfonso said the issue was being looked at by his ministry and the NOC.
He said he understood that people would be fearful after hearing that there was a situation with Muslims three days before the 25th anniversary of the 1990 attempted coup, which saw Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr and his men attempt to overthrow the Parliament.
Abu Bakr was detained on Monday for questioning in relation to the murder of Dana Seetahal, SC, but was released two days later without being charged.
"There is a disaster plan in place," said Alfonso.
A national disaster plan was one of many recommendations in the report of the Commission of Enquiry into the coup attempt.