A PARCEL bomb sent to a Paris building containing the French president's former law firm killed one person and injured five others yesterday.
The woman who died was a secretary in a different law firm in the building.
A lawyer, Olivier Brane, 58, was reported last night to have been seriously injured.
An investigation was opened by the Paris anti-terrorist branch into the bombing,
which the interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, condemned as "a cowardly and odious act".
The parcel was addressed to Catherine Gouet-Jenselme, 60, whose offices are on the fourth floor of the building at 52 Boulevard Malesherbes.
Nicolas Sarkozy's former law firm, Arnaud Claude & Associates - which he still part-owns - is located on the first floor of the same building, but the authorities said yesterday that there was no immediate indication that the attack was in any way linked with the president.
The building also houses the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah, a Holocaust remembrance organisation.
According to colleagues, Mrs Gouet-Jenselme was unaware of any reason why she might have been the target of such an attack as she usually deals with divorces, and property and insurance conflicts rather than politically sensitive cases.
She said: "The investigation is under way. It is still too early to be able to draw any conclusions.
"We are in the process of gathering all the material elements which could be on the scene and listening to a certain number of people who could have seen something."
David Martinon, a spokesman for Mr Sarkozy, called the bombing "a truly atrocious act".
The full article contains 273 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
