An eight-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 driver 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.

The man was arrested soon after the attack on Monday night in the town of Sept-Sorts, east of Paris.

A police official said the man was psychologically unstable and had no police record.

The official says investigators are not searching for accomplices.