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| Letter Bomb Wounds One at I.M.F. in Paris | Letter Bomb Wounds One at I.M.F. in Paris |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| PARIS — A letter bomb exploded on Thursday at the International Monetary Fund’s offices in Paris and left at least one person “lightly wounded,” according to the local police. | |
| A spokesman for the Paris police said the episode occurred around 11.30 a.m. when the victim, who has not been identified, opened an envelope at the fund’s offices, which are in the west of the capital. | A spokesman for the Paris police said the episode occurred around 11.30 a.m. when the victim, who has not been identified, opened an envelope at the fund’s offices, which are in the west of the capital. |
| Police officers and firefighters were at the scene, the spokesman said, which is not far from the Arc de Triomphe and the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, one of Paris’s most famous streets. | Police officers and firefighters were at the scene, the spokesman said, which is not far from the Arc de Triomphe and the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, one of Paris’s most famous streets. |
| In a post on Twitter, the police prefecture said there was a continuing operation after an injury to one person caused by “a suspicious package” that appeared to contain a “firework” of some sort. | |
| “I have been informed about the explosion in the I.M.F.’s Paris office, which caused injuries to one of our staff,” Christine Lagarde, the head of the fund, said in a statement released from Frankfurt. “We are working closely with the French authorities to investigate this incident and ensure the safety of our staff.” | |
| France is still under a state of emergency after a string of terrorist attacks over the past few years, including a series of assaults in and around Paris in November 2015 that left 130 people dead. | France is still under a state of emergency after a string of terrorist attacks over the past few years, including a series of assaults in and around Paris in November 2015 that left 130 people dead. |
| The International Monetary Fund, headquartered in Washington, uses its offices in Paris and Brussels to ease communication with European officials and policy makers. | The International Monetary Fund, headquartered in Washington, uses its offices in Paris and Brussels to ease communication with European officials and policy makers. |
| After the attack on Thursday, the police shut down part of Iéna Avenue, the street where the fund’s office is. | |
| Employees and consultants waited outside the cordoned-off perimeter, apparently unsure about what would happen next. | |
| “They told us to leave and we left and here we are learning about things,” said Anneke Slob, a Dutch consultant visiting from the Netherlands. | |
| She said her consulting team had been in a meeting with representatives of the International Finance Corporation, a sister agency of the monetary fund, when they realized something was wrong. | |
| “We were completely unaware,” she said, adding that the police had apparently failed to evacuate the room they were in. “We heard a bit, no panic whatsoever, somebody went out to go to the toilet and someone said, ‘What are you doing in the building?’ ” | |
| There was “no panic at all,” said Ms. Slop, who had luggage at her feet that police officers had retrieved from the building. “We didn’t stop our meeting for five seconds,” she added. | |
| Ms. Slop said she and the fellow evacuees were continuing their meeting on the street. |