A policeman and a civilian were wounded when gunmen opened fire on a police outpost in Mali's capital Bamako, an attack a minister insisted was an "isolated act".

The attackers arrived at a busy bus station in a taxi before opening fire on the police post, injuring two people, Interior Minister Sada Samake told AFP by phone.

"This is an isolated act," Samake said. "We have opened an investigation."

The shooting follows a series of attacks that have been concentrated in northern and central Mali, most recently in the town of Sevare, where a deadly hostage drama at a hotel frequented by foreigners left 13 people dead last week.

The Sevare attack was claimed by fighters linked to the notorious one-eyed Algerian leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the former head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) who now leads his own extremist Al-Murabitoun group.