MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) — The flight of Christians from their homes in Mosul has been stemmed after police reinforcements took up positions in the troubled northern Iraqi city, a local official said on Monday.

Jaweat Ismael, chief of the city’s bureau of displaced people, said there was “no new wave of displacements” on Monday.

Over the past few days, thousands of Christians fled their homes in a city considered by US and Iraqi commanders to be the nation’s most dangerous and a last stronghold of Al-Qaeda.

Nearly 1,000 police moved into Mosul on Sunday after a dozen murders of Christians in Iraq’s third largest city over the last two weeks sowed panic in the minority community, triggering the exodus of nearly 1,000 families.

An AFP correspondent said Mosul was full of police manning checkpoints and patrolling churches and residential areas in the multi-faith city, while volunteer organisations, including the Red Crescent and church groups, were handing out food and water.

Since the US-led invasion of 2003 more than 200 Christians had been killed and a string of churches attacked, with the violence intensifying in recent weeks, particularly in the north of Iraq.

There were no reports of further violence on Monday although one Christian was killed and his nephew wounded late on Sunday when gunmen opened fire in the eastern neighbourhood of Hay al-Ekhaa.

Around 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq at the time of the US-led invasion, but the number has since shrunk by around a third as the faithful have fled the country, according to Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered an investigation into the attacks, pledging to take all steps necessary to protect the threatened community.