Member of Parliament for Manchester Southern Robert Chin is encouraging businesses and residents to be vigilant following a spate of robberies in Manchester.

The latest incident at a supermarket in Porus, left two people dead and four gunmen in police custody.

Police have not yet released the identities of the deceased, but IRIE FM News understands that one of the individuals is a Chinese national who operated the supermarket, while the other is a Jamaican.

Mr. Chin expressed condolences to their families.

Mr. Chin congratulated the police for acting swiftly, while noting that there seems to be a migration of criminals into the parish.

As such, he urged businesses to ramp up security measures.

Meanwhile, Head of the Manchester police, Superintendent Shane McCalla is encouraging businesses in Manchester to do more target hardening this festive season.

Target hardening is the strengthening of the security of a building to protect it, in the event of attack, or to reduce the risk of theft.

Superintendent McCalla says this is necessary to prevent attacks by criminals migrating from neighboring parishes which are under States of Emergency.

Noting that several recent robberies in the parish were carried out by a criminal syndicate, Superintendent McCalla says investigations also revealed that some robberies at business places are linked to rogue employees.

He is encouraging companies to seek assistance from the police or security companies when dealing with large sums of money.

He says where possible, large transactions should be done via bank transfer or online, to minimize the risks of crime.