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Tube Knifeman ‘Had Lee Rigby Image On Phone’

Muhiddin Mire, 30, cut the throat of musician Lyle Zimmerman so that his windpipe was exposed during a terrifying rampage at Leytonstone Tube station, a court heard.

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Eventually Mire was hit with a stun gun three times by police before being brought to the ground.

Muhiddin Mire is arrested by British police after the December 5 stabbing at Leytonstone station in London.

Mr Zimmerman was “a lucky man”, Mr Rees told the court, as he was discharged from hospital the day after the attack with just a tetanus jab and antibiotics, as the knife attack had missed major blood vessels and arteries.

His motivation was also demonstrated in material police recovered from his mobile phone, including a graph showing numbers of USA and coalition force air strikes on Islamic State and images of hostages before they were executed by having their throats cut.

“There were other images of Fusilier Lee Rigby, the young soldier hacked to death and effectively beheaded in Woolwich in May 2013”.

Mire went on to lash out at Serena Valori as she was leaving the station and an unknown man before coming face to face with Russian security guard Andrius Sabaliauskas.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC said this evidence “provides an insight as to what motivated the defendant to do what he did”.

Mr Zimmerman, 56, suffered “a deep and ragged wound” to his neck, and his windpipe was exposed.

There were three cuts – one 4.7in (12cm) long and two 2in (5cm) long.

One onlooker shouted out “You ain’t no Muslim, bruv” after Mire claimed to eyewitnesses that he was doing it for “my Syrian brothers”, the Old Bailey was told.

Somali-born Mire, who came to Britain as a young boy, accepts that he used the knife, but the jury must decide whether he meant to kill Mr Zimmerman.

He then began to kick the victim to the body and head while passenger Louise McGuinness shouted at him to stop.

Undeterred, Mire brandished the knife and threatened that she would be next as a pool of blood gathered around his victim on the floor of the ticket hall, jurors heard. So I asked him if he could stand up.

Dr Smith managed to get the musician, who was showing signs of shock, back up to the train platform where he continued to give him first aid.

Mire did not reply, but instead tried to slash him with the knife, the court heard.

Muhaydin Mire is accused of an attempted murder at a Tube station in East London.

Mr Zimmerman was followed by Mire from the tube who was said to have already identified him as his target and was reaching inside his jacket for the knife. “I’m going to spill your blood”.

Mire again lunged at him with the knife, and he defended himself from the blade using his rucksack.

He denies the attempted murder of Mr Zimmerman.

Mr Rees said the knife was “relatively blunt” and had broken away from the handle, meaning it was “much harder to cut into the victim’s neck”.

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“He said he was going to kill me and my parents”, Mr Pethers told the court.

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