Gizo Police in Solomon Islands say tensions in the provincial capital have been brought under control.
The Solomon Star reports the police commander for Western Province, Fred Satu, saying Gizo township is now calm after a confrontation between two ethnic groups last Saturday had caused public panic.
He told the paper this was an act of retaliation for an earlier incident in which a man was injured in a brawl, and required treatment at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara.
The police commander says three boat loads of relatives of the injured man arrived in Gizo on Saturday and started assaulting the families of those involved in the brawl.
In all 18 people, including six women, were arrested after the rampage.