GUWAHATI: Three people were killed in India's restive Assam state on Sunday when ethnic Assamese clashed with tea plantation workers, officials said.

Authorities imposed a curfew in Doomdooma town in eastern Assam to prevent more violence in the tea-and oil-producing state, where thousands have died in the past three decades in ethnic and tribal clashes and separatist violence.

The three were killed after hundreds of tea plantation workers — non-Assamese armed with spears and bows and arrows — tried to break up a road block held by ethnic Assamese.

The Assamese put up the road block to protest the killing of a civilian during an anti-insurgency operation by Indian troops last week. The blockade had disrupted the supply of goods to tea plantations in the area, causing a scarcity of food.—Reuters