GUWAHATI, India - At least 13 people were killed in a gunfight between two unknown militant groups in India's restive Manipur state on Monday, a police official said, seven months after ethnic clashes in the border state killed at least 180 people.

Their bodies, with multiple bullet wounds, were found in a village in Manipur's Tengnoupal district where the official said a "massive" gunfight was reported.

The state has witnessed sporadic violence since the peak of ethnic clashes that erupted on May 3 between members of the majority Meitei ethnic group and minority Kuki community over sharing government benefits and quotas.

"We are not in a position to immediately identify the dead bodies and cannot say which militant group they belong to," the senior official told Reuters by phone from state capital Imphal.

(Reporting by Zarir Hussain; Writing by Shivam Patel; Editing by Toby Chopra)