Hungarian authorities launched a major security operation after two police officers were seriously injured in a bomb attack in Budapest.

The officers were on a routine foot patrol along a main thoroughfare in the Hungarian capital when the explosion occurred late on Saturday night. A 23-year-old female officer, known to Hungarians as the face of a police recruiting campaign, sustained what doctors described as “life threatening” injuries to her neck. Her male colleague, 26, received serious wounds to a leg in the blast that rocked the heart of the city at a time when thousands of people were enjoying the weekend’s nightlife.

Karoly Papp, chief commissionaire of the Hungarian national police, told a press conference on Sunday night that an unknown person had deliberately targeted the officers with a homemade explosive device.

“Someone tried to execute my officers,” he said, adding that a major manhunt was now in operation for a male aged between 20 and 25, and that a reward of 10 million Hungarian forint (£28,300) had been offered.