A man who launched a frenzied knife attack at Manchester Victoria train station last New Year's Eve has pleaded guilty to a terrorism offence and three counts of attempted murder.
Mahdi Mohamud, 26, shouted "Allahu Akbar!" and "Long live the Caliphate!" as he stabbed and slashed at Anna Charlton and James Knox, a couple in their 50s who were walking to a tram platform.
He raised the fillet knife and walked up behind unsuspecting James Knox, stabbed his victim repeatedly in the back, shoulders and head. Mr Knox suffered 13 injuries including a skull fracture.
Then he turned the knife on Mr Knox's companion, Anna Charlton, puncturing her lung and slashing her across the face, cutting her forehead down to the bone.
British Transport Police officers heard a blood-curdling scream and dashed to the scene.
Pcs Ashleigh Williams, 27, and her colleague Marsha Selby, 28, along with two tram staff confronted Mohamud, who "like an animal" was "fixated" on stabbing and slashing, witnesses said.
The suspect was pepper sprayed before seconds later Pc Tom Wright, 27, arrived along with Sergeant Lee Valentine, 31, who shot Mohamud with his Taser.
But the barbs of the 50,000 volt shock gun got stuck in the knifeman's thick coat and failed to paralyse him.
Before he could reload the knifeman ran along the blood-spattered platform charging at the officers with the weapon.
Sgt Valentine was stabbed in the shoulder before the suspect was wrestled to the ground and arrested.
A second kitchen knife was found in his waistband.
The Dutch national from a Somali family, who moved to the UK aged nine, was later found to be in possession of a terror publication titled, "the seven most lethal ways to strike with a knife", the police said.
Detained under the Mental Health Act the day after the attack he was later found fit to stand trial.
The defendant, from Cheetham Hill, pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday to three counts of attempted murder.
He also admitted one count of the possession of a document or record likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, a manual titled, "the seven most lethal ways to strike with a knife".
