Two irrigation department employees were injured when bombs were hurled at their vehicle in Malda on Saturday during an inspection of anti-erosion work along the Ganga, days after the project’s contractors faced extortion demands.

Some locals suspected the attackers mistook the two as associates of the contractors, who had earlier stopped work on the Rs 36-crore project after the extortion demands by some local miscreants.

At least five bombs were thrown on the vehicle in Manikchak’s Kesarpur, residents and police sources said, leaving Chiranjib Mishra and Mohammed Alam Sheikh with multiple injuries. They have been admitted to a hospital in Malda. Pralay Ghosh, their driver, suffered minor injuries.

Mishra is a work assistant and Sheikh a fourth-grade employee. “We have informed our seniors in Calcutta. It is an unprecedented incident,” said an irrigation official.

DSP Bipul Majumdar said searches were on to arrest the attackers.