Finnish police say a stabbing attack that wounded four people outside a mall in Finland isn't believed to be a terror or racist attack.

Finnish police said on Friday a man held over a stabbing attack in the southwestern city of Tampere on Thursday in which four people were injured told them he had no racist or political motive for the deed and had attacked people randomly.

The person arrested over the attacks in Tampere, Finland's third-largest city, is reported to be a Finnish man in his twenties, according to local media.