GUWAHATI, Sept 30: Five people were killed and 52 wounded on Sunday in two separate explosions while a third blast ripped apart a natural gas pipeline in the restive northeast Indian state of Assam, officials said.

Police said an explosion went off in the evening near a Hindu temple, leaving three people dead and 24 wounded, while a blast by a cinema hall in a neighbouring town killed two and injured 28 others.

“About 27 people were injured in the blast, most of them either temple goers or evening shoppers,” said Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, deputy inspector general of Assam police, by telephone from the area of the first blast.

“Three of the 12 critically injured died.” The rest of the injured were being treated at a local hospital, he added.

A second explosion took place around the same time in a neighbouring town, with one of the dead believed to be a bomber belonging to the separatist United Liberation Front of Asom rebel group, which police say is behind the attacks.

“In all probability the ULFA bomber who was carrying the explosive on a motorcycle died. Another civilian was also killed,” a police official who declined to be identified said by telephone from Doomdooma town, where the cinema blast occurred.The official said 28 people were also wounded in the attack.

“The condition of five of them is said to be critical,” he said.

Rebels later triggered a powerful explosion on a pipeline transporting natural gas to tea gardens in another district.

“The blast ripped apart the pipeline and a massive fire erupted soon after,” said an Assam Gas Company Limited official, who did not want to be named.

“The fire has since been brought under control after the gas supply was stopped.” The ULFA has also been blamed for a string of attacks and explosions in Assam since January in which about 120 people have been killed, most of them Hindi-speaking migrant workers.—AFP