A government-imposed night-time curfew in the restive canal city of Port Said has been reduced from nine hours to four, Port Said Governor Ahmed Abdullah declared Wednesday night.

Until further notice, Abdullah said, the curfew in the city would begin at 1am and end at 5am.

President Mohamed Morsi on Sunday declared a month-long state of emergency in Egypt's three canal cities (Suez, Port Said and Ismailia), which entailed daily 9pm-to-6am curfews.

He later empowered the governors of the three cities to reduce or cancel the curfew in their respective cities in accordance with local security circumstances.

Earlier on Wednesday, the governors of Suez and Ismailia both reduced the curfews in each city to three hours.

Ismailia and Suez have both witnessed anti-government protests and clashes since the second anniversary of Egypt's January 25 Revolution on Friday. In Suez, nine people – including one police conscript – were killed, while at least one civilian has been reported killed in Ismailia.

Port Said, meanwhile, has seen intermittent violence since Saturday, after a criminal court sentenced 21 of its residents to death for their involvement in last February's Port Said stadium disaster in which scores of football fans were killed.

Riots that erupted in the city after the verdict was announced left at least 39 civilians and two police officers dead.