Stu­dents of the St Fran­cois Girls’ Col­lege were forced to take cov­er yes­ter­day, af­ter rapid gun­fire was heard along the St Fran­cois Val­ley Road, Bel­mont, where the school is based.

The in­ci­dent came ex­act­ly one week af­ter school was dis­missed ear­ly and stu­dents were forced to take pro­tec­tive mea­sures, dur­ing a dri­ve-by at­tack and a gun bat­tle be­tween po­lice and the sus­pects.

Re­gard­ing yes­ter­day’s in­ci­dent, po­lice said around 11 am, res­i­dents of St Fran­cois Val­ley Road heard a se­ries of gun­shots.

The po­lice were no­ti­fied. How­ev­er, there were no re­ports of in­juries or prop­er­ty dam­age.

But the gun­shots had some stu­dents and staff tak­ing cov­er out of fear, ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cers.

There was no in­di­ca­tion that the school was dis­missed ear­ly.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors sus­pect the shoot­ing was as a re­sult of the death of Ta­far­wa Roberts, 24.

Roberts was one of two peo­ple shot in Bel­mont on Sep­tem­ber 27, which led to the shootout be­tween sus­pects and of­fi­cers along Ser­raneau Road, Bel­mont.

Roberts was shot in the head and was be­ing treat­ed at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. He suc­cumbed to his in­juries yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Af­ter last Fri­day’s in­ci­dent, po­lice said pa­trols would be stepped up out­side the school.

Coun­selling has been pro­vid­ed to both stu­dents and teach­ers.