After three years of a tense calm, people in the former peace zone have been engulfed in this ferocious war; thousands are fleeing.

One law student who spoke in a plaza in the wealthy community called Altamira said the seething strife has left a "tense calm, a dangerous calm," on the streets.

An ominously tense calm followed four days of intensifying clashes between the peacekeepers and fighters from the insurgent Revolutionary United Front.

Amid a tense calm the street leading to the president's office was blocked off by security forces on Sunday.

The interim police force took over the police station, and its spokesman said shooting had stopped and there was a "tense calm" in the slum.

A tense calm prevails, but the two sides remain wary adversaries, poised for a resumption of hostilities at any time.

Today witnesses said a tense calm hung over Lhokseumauwe, with no reports of mob violence.

And yet amid that tense godless calm the high bare boughs of all the trees in the yard were moving.

They were characterised by tense calm.