Letter bomb that exploded at Paris IMF office was sent from Greece

A letter bomb that exploded at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) office in Paris, injuring a secretary, was sent from Greece, officials say.

The IMF secretary who opened the letter bomb on Thursday (16 March) received shrapnel injuries to her face and hands and also damaged her eardrum due to the "rather violent noise".

Staff were evacuated following the incident, with French police carrying out a search of all four floors of the building, situated in a heavily-guarded compound.

The incident comes the day after a parcel bomb, meant for German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, was intercepted by police at the Detlev Rohwedder building, which houses the German finance ministry in Berlin.

The Greek far-left group the Conspiracy of Fire Cells claimed responsibility for sending that device, which had the address of right-wing Greek politician Adonis Georgiadis as the sender.

The IMF head Christine Lagarde condemned the "cowardly act of violence" in a statement.

"I condemn this cowardly act of violence and reaffirm the IMF's resolve to continue our work in line with our mandate," the statement read.

The BBC reported that Greece's deputy minister for public order, Nikos Toskas, said in a TV interview that the letter bomb sent to the IMF offices carried the name of Vassilis Kikilias, a senior opposition politician from the conservative New Democracy party.

The letter also bore the return address of an office in Greece "that is no longer in use", he added.

The homemade explosive was sent to the IMF offices, located on the Avenue Iena near the Champs Elysees. The noise of the explosion was compared to a "big firecracker" by police chief Michel Cadot, who confirmed it had been sent by standard post.

Codot added that the IMF office had received threatening phone calls in recent days but they were not necessarily linked to the letter bomb, which was designed to cause "severe injuries" when it was opened.

The international body, based in New York, is one of three organisations, along with the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB), which bailed out the Greek government when it came close to defaulting on its debts, sparking a political crisis.