Another round of shooting erupted on Thursday afternoon in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital forcing business houses in the city to close shop temporarily.
The shooting occurred at the Government Reservation Area Junction, which hosts four branches of leading commercial banks and the corporate headquarters of the Niger Delta Development Commission.
Although the cause of the shooting was not immediately known, some residents of the area, said that the gunshots were fired by suspected militants in a commercial bank.
One of the residents told our correspondent that the gunmen were trailing a bullion van from another bank and were about to dispossess the driver of the van when the policemen on duty intervened.
The exchange of shots between the gunmen and scores of riot policemen deployed in the area, forced many of the workers in the banks to flee while most of the offices there also shut down to avoid being attacked.
The incident also led to the closure of the stretch of the Aba-Port Harcourt Road from the GRA Junction to Waterlines Junction on Olu Obasanjo Street, leading to the build-up of heavy traffic on the route for over an hour.
But the Police Public Relations Officer for Rivers State, Mrs. Ireju Barasua, said she could not give details of what caused the shoot-out.
Barasua, a deputy superintendent of police, said however that there was an attempt by some elements to rob a van but that they were unsuccessful.