Three white men were killed and another wounded when a black gunman opened fire in Fresno, California, in a suspected race attack, police have said.

Kori Ali Muhammad shot 16 rounds in 90 seconds in the shooting spree on Tuesday, said Police Chief Jerry Dyer, reports the BBC.

He shouted “God is greatest” in Arabic when arrested but this was a hate crime not terrorism, Dyer believed.

Muhammad, 39, was also wanted for the murder of a security guard outside a motel in the city last week.

He now faces four counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

A Muslim leader in the city said Muhammad did not represent Islam.

All four victims were white men, and one of them was shot sitting in a car. Media in the city named him as Zackary Randalls, a 34-year-old father of two who was on his first day in his new job as a utility worker.

The suspect had indicated on social media that he hated white people and expressed anti-government views, police said.

“This was a random act of violence. These were unprovoked attacks by an individual who was intent on carrying out homicides today.”

Dyer added that Tuesday's attack “has nothing to do with terrorism in spite of the statements that he [Kori Ali Muhammad] made”.

The most recent statistics compiled by the University of Southern California's Center for Religion and Civic Culture showed that Fresno, a city of just over 500,000 people, had a Muslim population of just over 1,800 in 2000.

In a statement on Facebook, the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno condemned the attack, saying: “The phrase Allahu Akbar, or God is Great, is a prayer of peace for 1.8 billion Muslims around the world.”

BDST: 1500 HRS, APR 19, 2017
AP