A Muslim convert was heard chanting that he wanted to kill non-believers hours before going on a knife rampage and trying to kill a police officer and firemen.
The man was Tasered multiple times by police after launching his attack on a busy street.
Officers were called around midday yesterday when the knifeman, armed with four blades, attempted to smash his way into a neighbours’s property with an iron bar.
Hours earlier he had been heard reciting verses from the Koran and making threats ‘to kill Kuffars’.
Terrifying: Officers chased the subject down Falcon Road in Battersea, south-west London
Firemen at a nearby fire station in Battersea, South London, confronted the 26-year-old after seeing him throwing bottles at neighbours and threatening passers-by with kitchen knives.
But he went berserk and chased the firemen back to the station, where he attempted to batter down the doors.
Within minutes more than 20 police officers had arrived at the scene, blocking off the road as the man sprinted up and down smashing police car windows and screaming abuse.
Hacked to death: The rampage has revived memories of the slaying of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, South London
Terrified onlookers cowered in local shops as police tried to contain him using a Taser.
The rampage has revived memories of the slaying of Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was hacked to death in the street by two knife-wielding Muslim radicals in Woolwich, South London, in May.
Police said yesterday’s incident was not thought to be terror related.
Servet Kaplan, 22, a store manager at Battersea Food & Wine, said ‘People were trying to get into my store.
‘There were so many they wouldn’t fit through the door. I saw the police Taser the man and it didn’t affect him at all, he just carried on running.’
After 20 minutes officers managed to overpower the man who continued to lash out, injuring one officer who received minor cuts to his hands.
The suspect, known locally as Michael. was later taken to Springfield University Hospital in nearby Tooting with minor injuries caused by the Taser device.
He is thought to have been released from Springfield, a psychiatric hospital, two years ago.
His downstairs neighbour Gyare Patrick, 66, said: ‘He has always been trouble ever since he got here from Springfield two years ago.
‘He has always ranted and raved, swearing and shouting, ever since he got here. But in the last three months he has started chanting in Arabic. He has mental health problems.
‘Today he was chanting kill Kuffars and I’m going to Medina, which means kill non-believers and I’m going to heaven.
Chanting: The man was Tasered multiple times by police after launching his attack in broad daylight on a busy London street (file picture)
‘I didn’t take any notice of it because when you live downstairs from someone like that you become immune to it.’
Last night the suspect was being held on suspicion of the attempted murder of a police officer.
Chief Superintendent Paul McGregor said: ‘There were a considerable amount of people around.
The incident bought the place to a standstill.
‘This is a really good example of how important an effective Taser use can be, in the right circumstances.
‘People would have been seriously injured otherwise. It was very frightening for people locally.’
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