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BOMBAY, April 10 (AFP) - Three people, including two women, were killed in overnight violence between Hindus and Muslims near the western Indian commercial hub of Bombay, police said Wednesday.

The incident took place around midnight in the Bazarpeth market area in Kalyan district, 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Bombay, police said.

"The riots may have been triggered by way of some old dispute between a Hindu and a Muslim," a Kalyan police official told AFP.

The official said soon after midnight, mobs of Hindus and Muslims began attacking each other and three people -- two women and a man -- were killed "probably due to stabbing."

Police resorted to firing to control the mobs and a curfew has been imposed in the area.

Eight policemen were injured when the crowd pelted them with stones. Eight-nine shops have also been burnt, the police official said.

In neighbouring Gujarat state, around 750 people, mostly Muslims, have been killed in more than month-long clashes between Hindus and Muslims, triggered by the massacre of 58 Hindu pilgrims by a Muslim-led mob at the end of February.

Communally-sensitive Bombay was rocked by a string of riots in 1992 and 1993 soon after Hindu mobs demolished a mosque in northern India which they claim was built on the site of a temple. 

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