FRANCE:A parcel bomb exploded yesterday in an law office in the building where President Nicolas Sarkozy used to work, killing a woman legal secretary and seriously wounding a lawyer.
But the Paris prosecutor, Jean-Claude Marin, said the explosion was not linked to Mr Sarkozy.
"The motives are at the moment totally unknown," he added.
The parcel was delivered to the law firm of Catherine Gouet-Jenselme on the fourth floor of number 52 boulevard Malesherbes, less than a kilometre from the Élysée Palace in central Paris, by a motorcycle courier at 8.50 in the morning.
The deliveryman wore a helmet, making it difficult for the police studying CCTV footage to identify him.
Two devices, concealed in a wooden box, exploded at 12.50am when the legal secretary opened it. Olivier Brane, one of two lawyers to whom the parcel was addressed, was standing next to the secretary and was taken to hospital in a serious condition.
Christian Charrière-Bournazel, the future head of the Paris Bar association, said Mr Brane's life was not in danger.
Four other people were also injured, and 10 were treated for shock.
Arnaud Claude et Associés, the law firm that Mr Sarkozy founded, and in which he still holds a 30 per cent share, is on the first floor of the same building. The brass plaque engraved with the firm's name was removed last week.
The interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, rushed back from Brussels to visit the scene of the explosion.
Police have no credible leads yet, she said, after condemning "this cowardly and odious act".
The Shoah Foundation, committed to the memory of the Nazi Holocaust against Jews, shares the fourth-four landing with the law firm to which the bomb was sent. The Jewish activist Serge Klarsfeld visited the scene, but said he did not believe the foundation was the target.
Reporters suggested the attack might be linked to the trial of the Corsican nationalist Yvan Colonna for the murder of the French prefect Claude Érignac, in which the verdict is due next week.
But Ms Gouet-Jenselme's firm deals only with civil matters such as divorce, insurance and property cases.
The neighbourhood of nineteenth century apartment blocks and office buildings was cordoned off for several hours by soldiers, fire trucks and a dozen police vans. Residents were told to stay inside in case there was a second alert.
Neighbours contacted by Libération newspaper said they did not hear the explosion, and could see no damage other than a broken window at number 52.