Four bodies, including that of a six-month old girl, were recovered from the nearby jungles surrounding village Khoiraguri. Search for the rest is on, the sources said.

The bodies bore marks of sharp weapons like `dao', axes and knives.

The sources said that the incident occurred when the Santhals, standing in a queue outside an oil depot at Mongalguri market in remote Khoiraguri village, were dragged away by the bodos at around 0800 hours to the nearby jungles and hacked to death.

Terrified locals reported the incident to the police at around 10 pm and the policemen could reach the remote village after travelling on foot for three hours.

The recovered bodies were identified as Mahila Tisku (30), Baby Tudu (six months), Sita Soren (55) and Ramu Soren (65).

Senior district civil and police officials along with additionalforces were camping at the spot and combing operations were on.

Dhubri superintendent of police S C Sarmah said during search at a Bodo village, whose inhabitants were suspected to be involved in the violence, the police found all men members were absconding.

Ethnic clashes between the two groups had occured sporadically in the area with members of both community attacking each other, Sarmah said.