Car drives into cafe east of Paris killing one

French police said it was unclear if the act was deliberate but a 13-year-old girl has been killed and her younger brother was one of twelve people injured after the driver slammed his car into the sidewalk cafe of a pizzeria in the small town of Sept-Sorts east of Paris on Monday night. 

The driver of the car has been detained.

First reports from the scene indicated it was not a terrorist act, with suggestions the driver wanted to commit suicide and that he had weapons in his car. The anti-terrorist force in Paris has not been deployed. A police official said the man was psychologically unstable and had no police record.

The attacker was driving a BMW that he aimed at people in the Pizzeria Cesena in Sept-Sorts, about 60 kilometers (36 miles) east of Paris. 

A spokesman for the Interior Minstry said the driver was believed to have tried to commit suicide last week. Pierre-Henry Brandet said in addition to the fatality, four people were in a condition of "absolute emergency." Eight others were slightly injured. 

"I cannot tell you that terrorism has been discounted, but it is not the leading line of inquiry at this point," Brandet told BFM TV. "The first indications don't point towards terrorism." He described the man as a "depressive" and said he was about 30 years old.

The incident occurred less than a week after an Algerian national was arrested on suspicion of driving a hire car into a group of soldiers in the Levallois-Perret suburb of Paris. Six soldiers were injured. 

jm/rc (AFP, Reuters)