AJACCIO, France, December 17, 2007  - A bomb blast destroyed the tax office in the Corsican town of Bonfacio on Monday, just days after the conviction for murder of a pro-independence activist from the French Mediterranean island.

   According to Corsican security officials, the blast occurred at around 4:00am (0300 GMT) and appeared to have been caused by one or more gas cylinders wrapped around an explosive device.

   The resulting fire destroyed the tax office building in the southern Corsican town.

   The attack followed the sentencing last Thursday of Yvan Colonna, 47, for killing Claude Erignac, the state-appointed "prefect" or governor of Corsica in February 1998.

   The murder of the prefect was by far the most serious act of violence in some 30 years of generally low-level separatist violence on the island.

(AFP)