GUWAHATI, India, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Indian paramilitaries shot dead seven separatist guerrillas in a gunbattle in the country's restive northeast on Sunday, police said.

The Assam Rifles, one of the country's oldest anti-insurgency paramilitary forces, raided a rebel hideout in the mountainous state of Manipur, which borders Myanmar.

They seized automatic weapons, ammunition and explosives from the hideout, 30 km (18 miles) southeast of the state capital, Imphal.

"Troops came under fire when they approached the hideout, and in retaliatory fire which lasted for an hour seven militants were killed," a police spokesman who did not want to be identified told Reuters by phone from Imphal.

Police did not say which group the rebels belonged to. More than 20 militant groups operate in the state of just over two million, some demanding independence or greater autonomy.

Thousands have been killed in the prolonged insurgency in Manipur in the past few decades. (Reporting by Biswajyoti Das; Editing by Matthias Williams and Dean Yates)

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