BAUCHI: Dozens more bodies were recovered Wednesday after violent clashes in northern Nigeria, bringing the death toll to around 70, a count at a hospital morgue showed.

According to a foreign news agency 42 bodies were on the floor of the morgue in the city of Bauchi, all with bullet or machete wounds. Another 25 bodies, mostly young people including minors, had been placed in cold storage rooms.

The bodies were brought in on Monday after the violence, a morgue employee told the news agency. Police late Monday said 38 people died in the fighting, including three members of the security.

The clashes erupted Monday. The Kala-Kato sect, also known as Maitatsine, has been present in several states in northern Nigeria for decades. It led uprisings in 1980 and 1992 which claimed thousands of lives in the northern cities of Kano and Yola.

The number of its followers is not known but estimated to run into several thousands. Sect leader Badamasi Saleh Alkaleri was among those killed, the police said.

Police forces across Africa's most populous country have been placed on high alert in the aftermath of the clashes as part of a bid to forestall further violence.

Life was returning to normal Wednesday in Bauchi where the Red Cross was organising burials of the victims. Soldiers and police deployed across the city had withdrawn by early Wednesday.