Provincial police in the Beauce region, south of Quebec City, believe a man deliberately drove a stolen car into a fast food restaurant last night, igniting a fire that engulfed the whole building.

It happened just around 11:45 p.m. at the Burger King on Lacroix Boulevard in the city of Saint-Georges.

Firefighters found the building on fire, with a car that had smashed through the front window burning in the middle of it.

The driver had already left the scene when firefighters arrived. Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Sgt. Hélène Nepton said the man's clothes were on fire as he fled.

It is unclear how the fire started. Nepton said the fire is being treated as suspicious and specialists in fire investigations have been dispatched to the scene to look into what happened.

Police are also searching for the suspect. Nepton said the car appears to have been stolen from Lévis, a city about 95 kilometres north of Saint-Georges, on Monday.

No one else was injured in the crash and ensuing fire; the Burger King had closed at 10 p.m.

The fire did not spread, but the Burger King and a Thai Express restaurant in that same building were heavily damaged.