ADEN: Clashes in the Yemeni city of Aden on Saturday between members of the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) killed at least four fighters before armoured vehicles were deployed and calm was restored, security sources and residents said.

Residents had reported heavy gunfire throughout the day in Aden’s central Crater district that houses government headquarters and the central bank. The port city has seen tension between the internationally recognised government and the STC over control of the south of the country.

The prime minister of the Saudi-backed government returned to Aden last week from Saudi Arabia and is residing at the presidential palace in Crater along with other government ministers. Yemen’s president is based in Riyadh.

“We ask citizens in Crater to remain at home during the next few hours as security and counter-terrorism forces clean the city from some...outlaw elements,” the STC’s Security Belt Forces unit said in a Twitter post.

Armoured vehicles later entered the area, residents said.