FRANCE: French interior minister tours the site of the parcel bomb in explosion that killed one and injured several others in Paris

Record ID: 359221

  • Title: FRANCE: French interior minister tours the site of the parcel bomb in explosion that killed one and injured several others in Paris
  • Date: 7th December 2007
  • Summary: JOURNALISTS AND POLICE AT SCENE OF EXPLOSION VARIOUS OF POLICE POLICE TRUCKS AT THE SCENE OF EXPLOSION
  • Embargoed: 22nd December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVADNWZYA6DA058WFSPXVK1G0RLT
  • Story Text: French Interior Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, says details of a parcel bomb attack in Paris today (December 6) are unclear, but acknowledged the law firm where the device detonated was clearly a target.
    A legal secretary was killed and five others were injured when a parcel bomb exploded in a central Parisian building that houses a law firm part-owned by French President, Nicolas Sarkozy.
    A legal secretary from the Gouet-Jenselme law practice died and lawyer Olivier Brane, to whom the package was addressed, was rushed to hospital with serious injuries, officials said.
    Sarkozy, a former lawyer, retains a 30 percent stake in the Arnaud Claude and Associates firm which shares the building.
    French Interior Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, said the details of the case remain unclear but said the law firm was cleary the target.

    "For the time being we don't favour any specific leads. It was a law firm in charge of civil cases, specifically real estate matters. Different firms and activities are also housed in this building, so clearly it was the law firm that was targeted," said Alliot-Marie.
    Visiting the scene of the attack Paris public prosecutor, Jean-Claude Marin, said the explosive devices were designed to explode as soon as they were opened.

    "The package exploded on the welcome desk of the law firm. It was delivered by a dispatch rider. The package was inside a wooden box, which, once opened, exploded. According to the first information that we have had, the two explosive devices were activated to explode as soon as the package was opened," said Marin.
    Another suspicious package was being defused in the same building on Boulevard des Malesherbes, police said.
    A dozen police vans, military personnel and several fire trucks lined the streets near the building in western Paris, a Reuters reporter said. A large area around the lawyers' offices was cordoned off.
    A local witness said he saw the body of the secretary that later died of her injuries being carried out of the building.

    "Everybody left the building. We were able to see a body of a young woman covered with blood, who was taken to a room nearby to receive treatment. Apparently she later died of her injuries," he said.
    One of the lawyers at the firm targeted in the attack was working on the ongoing high profile Yvan Colonna case that has dominated the country's headlines.
    Yvan Colonna is on trial for the 1998 murder of French Chief Administrative Official, Claude Erignac, the most serious political assassination in France since World War Two.
    The assassination sparked one of the biggest murder investigations in the country's history.
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