PARIS — A female employee of the International Monetary Fund was injured in the face and arms on Thursday  (March 16) when a letter bomb posted to the world lender's Paris office blew up as she opened it, police said

The explosion was caused by a homemade device, said the head of the French capital's police force.

"It was something that was fairly homemade," police chief Michel Cadot told reporters.

Mr Cadot said there had been some recent telephone threats but it was not clear if these were linked to the incident at the IMF's offices.

A police source said the woman who opened the letter suffered burns on her face and arms but her life was not in danger.
 
Staff from the IMF office were evacuated and armed military officers and police guarded the area, in a chic district of western Paris. The World Bank office in France is in the same compound.
 
No other damage was reported in the explosion, according to a police official who was not authorised to be publicly named.
 
It is unclear who sent the explosive. Thursday's incident came a day after a package arrived at the German Finance Ministry containing low-grade explosives, like those used in firecrackers.
 
Mailroom employees at the ministry quickly identified the package as suspicious and called in explosives experts, who destroyed it with a controlled explosion.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde on Thursday condemned the letter bomb of the fund office in Paris as a "cowardly act".

"I condemn this cowardly act of violence and reaffirm the IMF's resolve to continue our work in line with our mandate," Ms Lagarde said in a statement from Frankfurt, where she is attending a conference ahead of the Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in Baden-Baden.

Ms Lagarde said the fund is "working closely with the French authorities to investigate this incident and ensure the safety of our staff".

France remains in a state of emergency after a string of deadly Islamic extremist attacks over the past two years. AGENCIES