After an uneasy calm over the last few days, people of Balukhali in Teknaf's Whykong union, awoke this morning to sounds of persistent gunfire and intermittent explosions from across the border in Myanmar.

Sirajul Mostafa, a member of Whykong union parishad, said tensions were running high among the people of the area near the border following the fresh bout of fighting in Myanmar.

The union parishad member said the gunshots and explosion of mortar shells were heard since 7:00am till 10:00am.

Locals said that over the past four or five days, they heard firing across the border only sporadically, but nothing like the continuous gunshots they heard this morning.

Locals say the Arakan Army has already captured the area on the Myanmar side opposite to this border. Unable to withstand the onslaught of the Arakan Army, Myanmar's border guards fled to Bangladesh.

They believe that the current shootings in the area were going on between members of the Arakan Army and a Rohingya drug lord's group.

For the past few weeks, fierce fighting has been going on with the Arakan Army and the government forces on the Myanmar side opposite to Ghumdhum union of Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban, Palangkhali union of Ukhiya upazila and Whykong union of Teknaf upazila in Cox's Bazar.

On February 5, a woman and a Rohingya man were killed and a child was injured as a mortar shell from across the border exploded in Ghumdhum.

There have also been numerous instances of mortar shells and bullets landing on the Bangladesh side of the border.