Fresh sectarian violence in India's western Gujarat state has left at least eight people dead. 

Police say the latest victims include a Muslim family of five that was burned to death by a Hindu mob on the outskirts of the commercial capital of Ahmedabad. About 40 other people, who suffered burns during the attack, were treated at a local hospital. 

Three other people were killed and 20 injured when police fired guns to disperse Muslim and Hindu gangs hurling rocks and petrol bombs at each other in and near Ahmedabad. 

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is due to visit Gujarat Thursday to tour some of the areas worst hit in recent weeks by communal rioting that has claimed the lives of more than 800 people, mostly Muslims. 

Sectarian violence in Gujarat erupted after a Muslim mob attacked a train carrying Hindu activists in the town of Godhra on February 27, killing nearly 60 people. 

Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.

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