New Delhi  - At least three people were killed and 26 injured when three blasts struck busy market places and other areas in Guwahati, the main city of India's north-east Assam state Thursday, police said.

"There were three bombings across Guwahati in which three people died and upto 26 were injured. Four of the injured are in a critical condition," Assam police chief GM Srivastava told reporters.

The first blast took place in Birubari, a residential area at 2.30 pm local time (9 am GMT), injuring two people.

The explosion was followed by another blast in a vegetable market in the Bhutnath area at 5.15 pm, wounding another 20 people.

"This was the worst of the low-intensity explosions in which three people succumbed to the injuries," Srivastava said.

There was a third blast at the upmarket Bhangagarh area outside some shopping malls half an hour later where seven people were injured, police said.

"There was a big blast and we saw a big fire when we went outside," Mukesh (who uses only one name) a mall manager told the NDTV. "Hawkers and vegetable vendors ran helter-skelter, shouting and screaming."

The blasts occurred ahead of a visit of Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram who was slated to review the security situation in the state, local media reported.

The Assam police said there were specific intelligence inputs that the state's major separatist outfit United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) would target marketplaces and areas in Guwahati.

"We have clear and definite leads that the ULFA is behind this. We are carrying investigations to find out the names of the ULFA commanders involved in the attacks," Srivastava said.

The bombings come two months after the state witnessed the worst terrorist bombings in its history - over 90 people were killed and over 300 injured in the attacks on October 30.

Indian security agencies said they suspected the ULFA of having carried out the bombings with help from Bangladesh-based Islamic militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami
(HuJI). (dpa)