GUWAHATI, India, June 29 (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed in a bomb blast at a crowded village market in India's troubled northeastern Assam state on Sunday, police said.

The separatist United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), fighting for an independent homeland for the state's more than 26 million people, was suspected to be behind the attack, according to police.

More than 45 people were wounded in the blast at Kumarikata, a small village near the border with Bhutan in Assam's Baska district, about 100 km (62 miles) west of the state capital, Dispur.

"Five people died on the spot and three died on way to hospital. Four others are in critical condition," a senior police officer told Reuters.

The toll could rise, police said, as they searched for more bodies and evacuated the injured to hospitals.

Police recovered another bomb from the market, he added.

Witnesses described a scene of carnage.

Blood was spattered around the market and torn human limbs were strewn about, while pigs and poultry ran amok after the blast, they told Reuters by telephone.

The attack came nearly a week after six ULFA senior commanders decided to shun violence and declared a ceasefire.

The ULFA is among more than two dozen armed groups in the region, either fighting for an independent homeland or more political autonomy.

They accuse New Delhi of plundering the region's mineral and forest resources, neglecting local economy and giving them back nothing in return. (Reporting by Biswajyoti Das, Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Mary Gabriel)

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