A five-year-old boy who was found with his throat slashed at home in Clarendon yesterday was one of at least nine persons murdered on the weekend as violence continued unabated.

The latest killings bring Jamaica's homicide toll to 546 this year.

The May Pen police reported that about 2:30 a.m., five-year-old Evan Sebastian Spencer was left at home in Frankfield, Clarendon. Shortly after, a man known to Evan's father was later seen fleeing the house. When the house was checked, the youngster was seen with his throat slashed.

The May Pen Homicide Investigation Unit has since taken the child's father and the accused man into custody for questioning.

It is the second murder of a five-year-old in the island in four days after Christina Salmon of Rose Heights, St James, was shot up by thugs last Thursday.

Meanwhile, detectives from the Denham Town and Half-Way Tree police stations were busy probing the murders of two men between Saturday night and yesterday morning. In the first incident, the police reported that about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, a man and a 12-year-old girl were at the intersection of Spanish Town Road and Rose Lane when explosions were heard.

It was later discovered that both were shot.

The two were taken to hospital where the man, identified as Basil Nelson, 50, of Temple Hall, St Andrew, succumbed to his injuries. The girl was admitted in serious condition. In the second incident, the police said that about 5:30 a.m. yesterday, residents of Manley Avenue, August Town, reported hearing explosions. On the arrival of law-enforcement personnel, the body of an unidentified man was discovered with gunshot wounds.