7 August 2012 Last updated at 13:19 ET

Fresh violence in India's Assam state

Many displaced people are living in temporary relief camps

The number of people killed in violence in India's Assam state has risen to 73 people with the deaths of three more people in recent violence.

The police said the three were killed in Kokrajhar district late on Monday.

More than 170,000 people have fled their homes after fighting between indigenous Bodo tribes and Muslim settlers in Kokrajhar and Chirang.

There has been tension between indigenous groups and Muslim Bengali migrants in Assam for many years.

Senior Assam police official LR Bishnoi told the Press Trust of India news agency that three people were killed in Ranibui village in Kokrajhar late on Monday after some "Bodo miscreants fired indiscriminately".

To protest against the killings, about 500 people blocked the National Highway 31 at Beltoli, the road which provides a link to north-east India.

A curfew was imposed in Kokrajhar after the incident.

Police say that the clashes began last month when unidentified men killed four youths in Kokrajhar, an area dominated by the Bodo tribe.

They say that armed Bodos attacked Muslims in retaliation, suspecting they were behind the killings.

Soon afterwards unidentified groups set houses, schools and vehicles ablaze, police said, firing indiscriminately from automatic weapons in populated areas.