Authorities have said that fighting between Jamaican forces and supporters of a reputed drug lord continued in Kingston Thursday with the death toll reaching 73.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that on the fifth day of urban violence, sections of the capital remained under a state of emergency as the manhunt continued for alleged drug kingpin Christopher "Dudus" Coke, considered a hero by some but wanted for extradition to the United States on drug-trafficking and gun-running charges.

Police spokesman Glenmore Hinds has said, "We are still searching for Mr. Coke."

Authorities had recovered the bodies of 73 civilians in Kingston, the Times said. Six of the dead may have been killed in situations unrelated to the battles between police and government troops and Coke loyalists, Hinds have said.

Hinds further told the Times that another 26 civilians were wounded.

The Gleaner newspaper in Kingston has reported that at least 260 persons have been detained.

Asked about residents' accusations of human-rights violations by soldiers and police officers, and extrajudicial killings, all slayings in the country are investigated without exception.

The Gleaner morgues in the Kingston area were nearing capacity, told Ferdinand Madden, chief executive of Madden's Funeral Supplies and Crematorium.

The Jamaican government's decision to execute an arrest warrant for Coke, after resisting for months, is what ignited the violence. Coke's supporters battled security forces and barricaded Tivoli Gardens, Coke's stronghold, to keep authorities out.

David Rowe, a Jamaican lawyer and extradition specialist, told the Los Angeles Times in a telephone interview, "Christopher Coke is a Robin Hood, Pablo Escobar-type of corrupter. He spends (his) money on the community that he lives in ... and they think of him as a hero. (But) he is to the rest of Jamaica a desperado who has destroyed our international reputation and seriously affected the bilateral relationship between Jamaica and the U. S." (With Inputs from Agencies)