Man admits New Year's Eve terror attack in UK

Mahdi Mohamud pleads guilty to three counts of attempted murder in terror knife attack in Manchester

Police officers stand near a cordon at Manchester Victoria Station, in Manchester on January 1, 2019, following a stabbing on December 31, 2018. - A man, a woman and a police officer were being treated for knife injuries, police said Monday, after a stabbing at a railway station in the British city of Manchester. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)
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A Dutch national has admitted launching a New Year's Eve terror knife attack in Manchester where he attempted to murder three people.

Mahdi Mohamud, 26, attacked commuters and police at Manchester Victoria railway station last year.

On Tuesday he pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted murder and terror offences.

Mohamud attacked James Knox from behind, screaming Islamist slogans as he stabbed him repeatedly in the back, shoulders and head with a fillet knife. He suffered 13 injuries and a fractured skull.

He then attacked Anna Charlton, slashing her across the face and puncturing her lung.

The couple, in their 50s, had been heading for a tram platform shortly before 9pm on December 31

Two officers, PCs Ashleigh Williams, 27, and her colleague Marsha Selby, 28, from the British Transport Police, ran to help and described him as being “like an animal” and was “fixated” on stabbing and slashing.

Police attempted to use pepper spray and tasers to apprehend him, but Mohamud was still able to stab another officer in the shoulder before he was finally wrestled to the ground and arrested.

The defendant, a Dutch national from a Somali family, had arrived in the UK aged nine and became radicalised online, Greater Manchester police said.
He was detained under the Mental Health Act the day after the attack but was later found fit to stand trial.

Mohamud has pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to three counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a terror document namely a manual entitled 'The seven most lethal ways to strike with a knife'.

He will be sentenced later.