Finnish police say stabbing that wounded 4 people at mall in Tampere not a terror or racist attack

HELSINKI (AP) — A stabbing attack that wounded four people Thursday outside a mall in Finland wasn’t believed to be a terror or racist attack, police said.

A suspect was arrested and there was no longer a threat to the public in the southern city of Tampere, police said.

No details were provided about the suspect or a motive, but Finnish news media said that a man was arrested. The condition of the wounded wasn’t immediately clear.

Workers used pressure washers to clean up blood stains outside the mall, Finnish public broadcaster Yle reported. A large pool of blood was visible outside a restaurant and blood trailed from the mall to a nearby highway.

Police initially blocked all doors of the Ratina shopping mall and people weren’t allowed to enter or leave the center. But by early evening, police said they had lifted a lockdown and left the scene.

Tampere, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Helsinki, is known as the sauna capital of the world.

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A previous version of this story was corrected to show that the spelling of the city is Tampere, not Tempere.