The government of Trinidad and Tobago has declared a state of emergency after a weekend of violence in the Caribbean dual-island nation took the number of murders this year to 623.

Five men were shot overnight in an estate on the outskirts of the capital, Port of Spain, a man killed outside a police station on Saturday, and a 57-year-old woman was shot dead on Friday as she collected her teenage son from hospital in San Fernando.

In a population of 1.5 million, the unprecedented tally for 2024 makes Trinidad and Tobago one of the most violent countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Under the emergency powers announced by the office of the prime minister, Keith Rowley, the police and army have widespread authority to detain individuals without charge and search properties without warrants.

In a statement, Rowley said he was disappointed in the murder tally for 2024 and appealed to the police to use their new powers to make life “uncomfortable” for criminals.

At a press conference in Port of Spain, at which Rowley’s absence was criticised by local media, the attorney general, Stuart Young, said there would be no public curfew imposed at this time.

Young said the measures had been introduced as a result of a week of “brazen acts” by criminals in the country and that there was an expectation of a wave of reprisal attacks at a “scale so extensive that it endangers public safety”.

He said there were “limited assurances” he could give to a concerned public, adding: “What we are faced with was heightened criminal activity with the use of high-velocity assault weapons in reprisal attacks between gangs.

“It’s not about culling the homicide rate, it’s about expecting brazen acts which are going to endanger the public,” he said, although he admitted that the past 10 years of the government’s tenure had seen crime rates spiral upwards.

The president, Christine Kangaloo, said in a proclamation: “I am satisfied that a public emergency has risen as a result of the occurrence of action that has been taken or is immediately threatened by a person, of such a nature and on so extensive a scale, as to be likely to endanger the public safety.”

An estimated 42.6% of the killings are gang-related, and almost all are linked to organised crime, according to the police.

The last state of emergency to be declared in Trinidad and Tobago was in 2021 to allow for restrictions during the Covid pandemic.