At least one person was killed and 100 more wounded on Wednesday when five bombs ripped through busy markets and a bus station in a northeast Indian town, police and witnesses said.

Four large explosions occurred in packed market arcades in Agartala, the capital of Tripura state, while the fifth went off at an inter-city bus station, a police spokesperson said by telephone from the town.

"All the four big markets of Agartala have been targeted," the official said, adding 100 people were wounded, 15 of them critically.

Government officials in New Delhi put the death toll at two, but this could not be immediately confirmed.

So far no one has claimed responsibility for the serial bombings in Agartala, police said.

Most of the victims were shopping on the eve of Eid-al-Fitar, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, deputy inspector general of police Nepal Das said.

Hindus were also out in large numbers, stocking up for the annual religious festival of Durga Puja which begins on Saturday, he added.

Television footage showed men carrying bleeding victims including women and children to hospitals.

"At least two of the blasts were powerful," Das said, adding that the serial explosions were the first such attacks in Tripura.

Eyewitnesses at Agartala's bustling Gol Bazar arcade contacted by telephone said a blinding light accompanied the blast.

"There was this flash of light and then a deafening sound and then smoke engulfed everyone," said Preeti Haldar, a housewife who received shrapnel injuries in both her legs.

Officer Das said an investigation was under way and a massive hunt for the bombers had been launched in Agartala.

"These were bombs and we are trying to ascertain what kind of explosives had been used," he said, adding that the blasts all occurred within 45 minutes.

Tripura is among a cluster of states in India's far northeast — an area wedged between Myanmar, Bangladesh, China and Bhutan — that is fighting long-running insurgencies by regional separatist groups.

However the fighting has declined in Tripura in recent years, Das said.

India has been rocked by a spate of bombings since November which has claimed scores of lives.

Most of the attacks have been claimed by the shadowy Indian Mujahedeen guerrilla outfit.

AFP