HUNDREDS of angry residents from Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town are this morning insisting that, despite police information, they are not being held hostage in their communities.

Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town residents protest outside the Denham Town Police Station this morning.

The action from the residents comes a day after police reports that residents were being held hostage inside Tivoli and Denham Town and that their phones had been confiscated.

"See it deh we can come out. A lie them a tell say we held hostage and them take way we phone. See we phone deh," said one woman before jumping over debris used to block one of the entrances to the area.

This morning, a Nationwide Radio report also carried quotes from a woman in the Tivoli Gardens community, who was heard saying that the residents were prepared to die for don Christopher Dudus Coke.

Meanwhile, reports from teachers in schools in the area are that the students who are doing exams have been allowed to leave to sit their exams. The Ministry of Education yesterday moved the exams from several schools in West Kingston to other centres amidst concerns about the violence in the area.