One killed by Paris parcel bomb

A parcel bomb explosion has killed one person and injured at least five others at law offices in central Paris.

The former law firm of President Nicolas Sarkozy is located in the same building as the office where the device exploded, at 52 Boulevard Malesherbes.

A lawyer and his secretary were among those injured, the French news agency AFP reports.

The building also houses The Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah - a Holocaust remembrance body.

French officials said the parcel bomb exploded on the fourth floor - not the one where Mr Sarkozy's old firm is located.

It was addressed to the law office of Catherine Gouet-Jenselme, AFP reported. It was not clear why she may have been the target of an attack.

Another parcel bomb arrived at the same address, but remained unopened, officials said.

French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie was rushing back from Brussels to visit the scene. She condemned the bombing as a "cowardly, odious act".

The mayor of Paris and police chiefs have already gone to the scene.

Speaking from the scene hours after the blast, Alliot-Marie said a courier delivered the "makeshift" letter bomb a short time before it detonated at approximately 12:50 p.m. (6:50 a.m. ET).

She said two explosive devices were inside the parcel -- one detonated and the other did not.

The package containing explosives was delivered to a fourth floor law office in a building on the Boulevard Malesherbes in Paris' 8th district, near the Champs-Elysees.

"Someone came to the office and left a package. The secretary who opened it in fact opened a parcel bomb. The parcel bomb killed her," Christian Charriere-Bournazel, president of the Paris bar association, told the Associated Press news agency.

The identity of the woman is yet to be released, while the injured lawyer was named as Olivier Brane.

An eyewitness said he first heard a muffled explosion, and later saw a blonde woman carried out of the building.

"She was completely covered with blood, she was unconscious," Damien Laude told AP.