Calm returned to Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, after two days of gun duel, which left no fewer than 10 persons dead.
But the Rivers State Police Command said on Tuesday that only six persons were confirmed dead and that the situation had been contained.
Officers and men of the Mile One Police Station in Central Port Harcourt, which had cordoned off part of the Ikwerre Road since Sunday, reopened the road on Tuesday.
They also dismantled an illegal roadblock mounted by the cultists on Njamanze Street and chased away the local fighters on Monday evening.
As the police were warding off the cultists, soldiers used an Armoured Personnel Carrier to pursue another set of gunmen who stormed the city around 4pm on Monday.
The gunmen had caused a major stampede in the Diobu and Port Harcourt Township areas, as they opened fire intermittently in the mainly business-dominated areas, forcing banks and owners of other commercial concerns to close shops abruptly.
The gunmen also forced traders at the Port Harcourt Market to close and flee when they fired unceasingly from a slum adjacent the dreaded Abonnema Wharf Road and caused some of the residents to run towards the market.
As traders and buyers saw people running helplessly towards the market, they also joined the fray and ran for safety.
Some shop owners forgot to lock up their shops while buyers never waited to collect items they had already paid for as the confusion over the shootings heightened.
A trader, who gave her name as Mary Igwe, told our correspondent that she lost some money while trying to escape.
�The real confusion was that we didn�t even know who was pursuing who and where we were running to,� a man who went to the market to shop for groceries lamented.
Findings by our correspondent revealed that the militants, identified as members of two rival cult groups, were fighting over the sharing of political booty given to them by unnamed persons.
Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Ireju Barasua, confirmed in a telephone interview that calm had returned to the city and that six persons died in the attacks.