Three killed in West Bengal bomb blast

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - At least three people were killed in a bomb blast in eastern India on Thursday, police said.

A woman and two men were among those killed when a powerful bomb accidentally went off inside a house in West Bengal's Siliguri district, Raj Kanojia, a senior police officer, said.

"The bomb was a powerful improvised explosive device and we are trying to find out what the people inside were up to," Kanojia said by telephone from Kolkata.

Police said they were investigating their links with several Madhesi rebel groups operating in the nearby Terai region of Nepal, who are boycotting elections there next week.

The Madhesis dominate the Terai, a narrow strip of fertile plains considered to be impoverished Nepal's food basket and home to nearly half of its 26 million people.

"We are exploring all possible angles, and the Madhesi connection could be a real possibility," Rahul Srivastava, another senior police officer, said from Siliguri.

(Reporting by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Alex Richardson)