A man who drove his car into a French pizzeria was apparently suicidal and the incident is not believed linked to terrorism, the Interior Ministry says.
Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said on BFM television that the man was born in 1985 and was believed to have tried to kill himself last week.
Mr Brandet said a young girl was killed and four people were injured in a condition of "absolute emergency".
He said eight others were slightly injured.
A police official said the man was psychologically unstable and had no police record.
The official says investigators are not searching for accomplices.
A 13-year-old girl was killed and at least five people injured when a driver rammed his car into a pizza restaurant in a small town east of Paris, French police say.
An official with the national gendarme service said the driver was arrested soon after the incident in the town of Sept-Sorts.
The official said it is unclear whether the act was deliberate.
An Algerian man drove his car into a group of French soldiers last week, and a truck attack in the French city of Nice left 86 people dead a little more than a year ago.
Several other countries have seen cars used as weapons in recent years.