GUWAHATI: An unidentified gunman today shot dead at least 12 people and wounded 15 in a busy market area in a town in India’s restive northeastern state of Assam, police officials said.

The gunman opened fire at the crowded market in Kokrajhar, a town about 220 km (140 miles) west of the state’s commercial capital Guwahati, superintendent of police in the town of Sreejith T told Reuters.

The fate of the gunman was not immediately clear. Assam, a remote and underdeveloped state in India’s northeast, has suffered from years of ethnic and tribal insurgencies.