He sustained fatal injuries when his bomb exploded prematurely as he was carrying it through Greenwich Park, London.

[2] On 15 February 1894 Bourdin entered Greenwich Park, carrying a small bomb, which exploded in his hand.

[2] Later, police investigators discovered that Bourdin had left his room on Fitzroy Street in London and travelled by tram from Westminster to Greenwich Park.

The police concluded that "some mischance or miscalculation or some clumsy bungling" had caused the bomb to explode in Bourdin's hand.

[5] Bourdin's gruesome death and the mystery surrounding his attempted act inspired Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel, The Secret Agent.