Five injured in blast in India's restive northeast

GUWAHATI: Five people were injured Wednesday by a blast amid celebrations for a Hindu festival in the main city in the insurgency-hit northeast Indian state of Assam, police said.

"It was a low-intensity blast in which about five people were injured," police official A. Das told media as he headed to the site of the explosion near a tent erected for the festivities in the heart of Guwahati.

"Investigations are on to ascertain the nature of the explosives." The five were taken to hospital, police said.

Bombings frequently take place across the state, where rebels of the United Liberation Front of Asom have been fighting for an independent homeland since 1979. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast came just days after deadly clashes in the north of the state between Muslims, many of them Bangladeshi immigrants, and indigenous Bodo tribespeople that killed almost 50 people.

More than 10,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in Assam over the past three decades.