At least eight persons, including two SSB jawans, were injured in a grenade blast in front of a shopping mall, near a park, in the heart of the city on Wednesday evening, police said.

Two men came on a motorcycle and threw a grenade in front of the shopping mall at arterial RG Baruah Road just opposite the zoo at around 7.55pm, Guwahati police commissioner Deepak Kumar said.

“As per the preliminary report, eight persons were injured. I am on my way to the spot now,” he said. All the injured have been taken to hospital, police said.

Director-general of police Kuladhar Saikia and other senior officials rushed to the spot. The location is next to the Shraddhanjali Kanan park, where a large number of people usually gather in the evening.

The motorcycle-borne youths probably targeted the police and SSB personnel frisking vehicles at that site.

Pankaj Das, a security guard at Guwahati Central, who was on duty 30 metres from the spot, said he heard a huge sound and rushed towards its source.

“I saw a person writhing on the footpath. Blood was pouring out of his right hand. His legs were also bloodied. I called my colleagues who rushed and covered his hand with cloth. After sometime, the police came and sent the person to hospital,” Das said.

Coagulated blood stains were visible at the spot, around 10 metres from the spot where the suspected grenade was lobbed.

The glass facade of the mall cracked under the impact.

The last blast occurred in Guwahati near Sukreswar Ghat at Panbazar on October 13, 2018, a few days before Durga Puja. Four persons were injured in that blast.