At least eight people, mostly shoppers, were killed and more than 20 injured in two simultaneous bomb attacks Sunday in the north-eastern Indian city of Guwahati, police and witnesses said.
Police said the first bomb ripped through the upscale Fancy Bazaar shopping arcade in the heart of Guwahati, the largest city in the nation's strife-torn state of Assam.
"The first blast occurred at 6:40 p.m. (1340 GMT) and three people died on the spot and two others succumbed to injuries on the way to hospital," Guwahati deputy police chief Rajan Singh told AFP.
Twenty more people were seriously wounded in the market-place bombing, he said, adding that the place was crowded with shoppers and vendors when the explosion occurred.
"There is chaos and panic and we are now engaged in removing the injured to hospitals," Singh said.
Several cars were also damaged in the explosion at the market, which sells everything from vegetables to electronics and clothes, he said.
The second bomb went off almost simultaneously in Patharkuwari on the city's outskirts, leaving three dead, he said.
"There has been some injuries but we are still getting details of the second bombing," he said.
The Press Trust of India news agency put the number of injured in the two attacks at 25.
Federal officials suggested the target of the second bombing was sensitive installations of the state-owned Indian Oil Corporation in Patharkuwari.
In the past month, 10 people including some Indian soldiers have died and in a dozen bomb attacks in oil- and timber-rich Assam, which borders Bangladesh.
Indian troops moved into Guwahati and cordoned off the city and launched a manhunt for the attackers, witnesses said. Police were using cranes to remove the damaged cars and debris from the partly damaged Fancy Bazaar, they said.
So far none of Assam's various outlawed rebel forces have claimed responsibility for the two attacks but Singh said police suspected the region's dominant United Liberation Front of Asom guerrilla group was behind the twin blasts.
India's resource-rich north-east, wedged between Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Myanmar, is home to more than 30-odd rebel armies with demands ranging from secession to greater autonomy.
More than 50,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the north-east since India's independence in 1947.