A woman is dead and another person has been injured after a car crashed into two bus shelters in different parts of Marseille.

Police advised the public to avoid the Old Port area where the driver, a 35-year-old man, was arrested.

“At the moment we have no information on the motives of this individual,” a police official told Reuters.

The driver first hit a bus shelter in the French city’s 13th arrondissement − or district − in the poorer northern part of the city, before hitting a second bus shelter an hour later in the 11th arrondissement, several kilometres south.

Police union representative Yves Lefebvre told broadcaster BFMTV that the man who had been arrested was not known to anti-terrorism services.

Monday’s incident comes days after 14 people were killed in terrorist attacks using vehicles against crowds in Barcelona and Cambrils in Spain.

Earlier last week, a 12-year-old girl was killed and 12 other people injured when a BMW rammed into a pizzeria in a village east of Paris.

The suspect in that case has been placed under formal investigation for murder and other offences, but investigators have ruled out a terrorist motive.

A 35-year-old man has been arrested after a car crashed into two bus stops in different parts of Marseilles. A motive remains unclear. Photo: Getty