Gun battles raging in Kingston have left 27 people dead, mostly civilians, police said yesterday, as a bloody standoff with gangs to capture an alleged drug kingpin rocked the Jamaican capital.

With violence escalating in Kingston, police confirmed 26 civilians and one member of the security forces had been killed since Monday's all-out assault to capture Christopher "Dudus" Coke. Thirty-two people have been injured.

The clashes appeared to be spreading beyond Mr Coke's western slum stronghold of Tivoli Gardens with fighting flaring briefly around a nearby hospital, forcing it to shut its doors, witnesses said.

Police also told AFP they have detained 112 people, including four women, but it was not known if Mr Coke, a popular local Robin Hood figure wanted by the United States, was among them.

Plumes of smoke have hung over Kingston since security forces Monday smashed through barricades erected last week around the Tivoli Gardens housing estate to thwart the government's bid to extradite Mr Coke to the United States.

Soldiers dressed in full combat gear and armed with rifles prowled the neighborhood, going home by home to search for Mr Coke, 42, who faces life imprisonment if convicted on US charges of drug trafficking and arms smuggling.

For the third day, Kingston was under a state of emergency. Helicopters buzzed overhead and the capital of the Caribbean island's normally bustling streets remained eerily deserted.

Residents trapped in Tivoli for 24 hours appealed on the radio for help and Mayor Desmond McKenzie said Red Cross officials were heading there to provide assistance.

"The security forces are also reporting seizures of firearms, ammunition, binoculars, army fatigues and ballistic vests," police said in a statement.

Residents have been warned to stay home, and the few who ventured out stayed close to walls, diving for cover as gunfire rattled around the area, now turned into a warzone. Schools and stores have shut.

A police spokesman, reading from a press release, said one member of the security forces had been killed and seven injured.

"For civilians, 25 injured, 26 killed since the security started their operation... yesterday," the police spokesman told AFP, adding "several other persons were killed elsewhere."

Residents see Mr Coke as a local hero for helping residents pay bills, and even send children to school. Mr Coke himself says he is merely a businessman.

His supporters have stockpiled arms, attacked police and set up barricades around the Tivoli Gardens neighbourhood, which is also the parliamentary district of Prime Minister Bruce Golding.

Three days after the government declared a state of emergency amid the worst internal unrest for years, airlines began cancelling flights to and from the troubled capital, as the clashes intermittently blockaded the international airport.

Most of the million tourists who flock to the island every year do not visit Kingston - long dubbed one of the murder capitals of the world, with 1,700 murder recorded in 2010 out of a population of 2.8 million.

Instead they flock to the beaches to soak up some sun and the sounds of reggae music, leaving the island's economy heavily dependent on tourism for bringing in valuable foreign currencies.

Late Monday, US officials updated a warning to US citizens not to travel to Jamaica, saying: "The possibility exists that unrest could spread beyond the general Kingston area."

The US embassy has also suspended non-essential services.

Drug warfare between rival gangs has long plagued the island with Jamaica a key transshipment point for cocaine from South America heading for North American and European markets.

The US Justice Department has labelled Mr Coke one of the "world's most dangerous narcotics kingpins".