Innocent people may be killed unless warring factions across the Island put down their weapons now, a defence lawyer warned yesterday.

Mark Pettingill said gang violence in St. George's and Crawl Hill had escalated to such serious levels that he feared a child would be killed in an indiscriminate revenge attack.

He held a press conference yesterday to plead with gang members to put their differences aside, and called on parents and other relatives to take action to prevent further violence.

His comments follow a number of attacks during the last week, one in which a man was allegedly shot at in his Pembroke home.

"There is concern that people are going to die as a result of the confrontations going on," said Mr. Pettingill.

"This is why this appeal is all about the young men that are involved in this type of activity. I'm begging them to put down, and they know what I mean. The whole thing is snowballing.

"It's got to the stage now where they are going to people's homes looking for retribution and a child could be injured or killed. Unfortunately, it does not take much for someone to die. It's a blessing there has not already been one."

Mr. Pettingill, who is legally representing some people involved in gang violence, said there were two gangs in St. George's and two in Crawl that were increasingly at each other.

He said, to his knowledge, the violence was not drug-related. But he said he believed gang violence between Bermudians and Jamaicans, which has been going on in the central parishes, was down to cultural differences. However, he said he found that ridiculous because Bermuda was such a melting pot of varying races.

He said only last week he was talking to the mother of one of his clients when she screamed that the window of her home had been put through with what she believed to be shots.

However, he said it had, in fact, been rocks that were thrown through the window in an act of revenge.

Mr. Pettingill said he had also spoken to senior and more junior Police officers who had also raised serious issues about a lack of manpower, and said that, too, had to be addressed before someone was killed.

He said too often there was insufficient officers to monitor the Island, and the recent gang violence was only putting a further drain on resources.

"We have to make a plea to young men and people to respect one another's cultural differences, and to accept that they should not resort to violence to settle those differences," added Mr. Pettingill.

"If you have a situation where someone thinks there is going to be a confrontation, then one group is not going to bring a stick to a gun fight."

The lawyer said, clearly, people were bringing guns onto the Island, and that should be a major concern, not only to the authorities, but to everyone.

"The trouble is, once you start putting bullets or rocks through people's windows, there will be innocent people, possibly children, that will be at risk of getting injured.

"I don't mean to be sensationalist in saying this because I have received these comments from both sides of the law, both from Police officers and from young men who are involved. But there is a war going on and it is brewing in society."

Assistant Police Commissioner Carlton Adams admitted there was an issue with some gang violence on the Island, but said many acts of violence were totally unrelated to gangs or particular groups.

However, he said the Police service was being proactive, and always acted quickly when violence occurred in any fashion.

Asst. Comm. Adams said there was no evidence to suggest that gangs were at each other's throats in St. George's or Crawl. But he said where problems did occur, they were often individual differences, rather than anything else.

He said: "The Bermudian and Jamaican issue is something that we recognise is our latest challenge. We have started an open dialogue with leaders of the Jamaican community to see what we can do to work with law abusing citizens.

"Violence is a problem, period, whenever it occurs, but we are targeting the individuals known to be involved in violence and committing offences in the process.

Asst. Comm. Adams said when it came to the staffing issue, there was not a major problem. He said the Force's full quota of officers was 436, and at the moment there were 416 on staff.

He added: "I would not say it's a serious problem. Yes, we are short, but we have had some horrendous demands made on our resources with what I would call protracted investigations, coupled with the normal attrition rate."