DETECTIVES from the Montego Bay CIB are probing the circumstances surrounding the killing of five people in the second city this morning.

Dead are 20 year-old Cornel Brown and Elton Hines, 23, both of Bird Hill, Salt Spring in the parish; Damion Brooks and 20-year-old Byron Powell, whose addresses are not known; and a fifth person who is yet to be identified.

Information received from the police is that about 5:30 am, residents called them to Bird Hill district after discovering the bodies of Brown and Hines. Investigators who went to the area inspected the bodies and realised they had gunshot wounds. About 500 metres from that location, the charred remains of Brooks, Powell and the unidentified person were found among the rubble of a burnt house.