Sadness was etched on the faces of police personnel who looked at the spot where a policeman drowned yesterday in the Rio Cobre near Gordon Pen, St Catherine.

The dead cop has been identified as Corporal Vincent Bent of the Mobile Reserve.

"Bent is a friend and colleague to me. In fact, we grew up in Old Harbour. It is a very sad day for me," Detective Corporal Jeffrey Allwood said. Others said the policeman was hard-working and went the extra-mile for his chosen career.

Police reports are that about 5:30 a.m., Bent and colleagues were chasing a group of gunmen. The chase took them on to the banks of the Rio Cobre and Bent and another colleague fell into the murky water.

Bent submerged and disappeared and his colleague was rescued and was later hospitalised.

When The weekend Star visited the scene, police divers took a man believed to be one of the gunmen from the river. He is said to be from the nearby Monkey Town community in Gordon Pen. Bent's body was later fished from the river.

A number of residents who converged on the scene said the section of the river where the policeman fell is quite deep. "A years mi live here and right here is very deep. We always go under the cave in there, it really deep," a resident said.

Police investigators are still combing the area for the gunmen who challenged them.