A woman and an adolescent boy were killed in a blast caused by a home-made bomb yesterday in an apartment building in eastern Paris, police said.
Mr Georges Sarre, the mayor of Paris's 11th arrondissement where the explosion happened, said the victims were Yugoslavs and added that the blast was "not of domestic origin".
The explosion, which police sources said appeared to be a parcel bomb that exploded when the package was opened, occurred at around 6:30 p.m. (7.30 Irish time) near the Saint-Ambroise church.
The woman was believed to be a cleaner who had lived in the building for a long time, "without ever having any problem," according to local residents. They added that she was aged around 40 and lived with her two sons, aged 14 and 17.
"We heard something that sounded like a bomb," a resident of the building said. "I went up to the flat (on the second floor) and forced the door open with a crowbar and a cloud of thick black smoke hit me in the face."
The three-storey building was evacuated and the cul de sac street where it is located was closed off by police.
Mr Sarre, who also went to the scene, said it was not clear "whether the victims received a package or whether they were making something".