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Death toll from India blasts rises to 74

  • Story Highlights
  • NEW: 74 killed, 370 wounded in blasts, authorities tell CNN
  • Series of explosions rock Assam state in northeast India
  • No one claimed responsibility for the attacks
  • Assam state has witnessed clashes between local tribes and settlers
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NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The death toll from a series of blasts in the remote northeastern Indian state of Assam rose Friday to 74, a police spokesman said.

A man tries to extinguish a fire after one of the blasts in northeastern India on Thursday.

The nine bombs ripped nearly simultaneously through crowded areas of Assam on Thursday also wounded nearly 370 people, Assam police Inspector Shidendra Roy told CNN.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, some of which police said occurred in the Assam capital, Guwahati, in Kamrup district.

Other bombs exploded in the Kokrajhar, Barpeta and Bongaigaon districts, police said.

Assam Home Commissioner Rajiv Kumar Bora said there were smaller blasts in addition to the bombs; authorities believe those have been caused by kitchen gas cylinders, he said. Video Watch more about the blasts »

Assam's superintendent of police has said both local insurgents and separatist organizations were being investigated.

Bora named the United Liberation Front of Asom -- a separatist group that has waged a 20-year rebellion demanding more autonomy from the central government -- as a suspect in the attacks. ULFA denies wrongdoing, he said.

Three other blasts in Assam this year were blamed on the ULFA. Photo Images from the devastating blasts »

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The group is also blamed for the deaths of 42 migrant workers in a series of small arms attacks in January 2007 and for bombing an Indian paramilitary forces bus in 2004.

There also have been clashes between local tribal people, known as the Bodo, and immigrants from Bangladesh, with which Assam shares a porous border. Fighting between the two groups killed at least 47 this month.

CNN's Harmeet Singh and Bharati Naik contributed to this report.

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