An Islamic State-inspired terrorist who attempted to behead a musician in a London train station has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Somali-born Muhiddin Mire, 30, will spend at least eight-and-a-half years behind bars for the attempted murder of musician Lyle Zimmerman, 56, in Leytonstone tube station on December 5 last year.

Footage of the incident went viral, and Prime Minister David Cameron later praised a man who shouted, “You ain’t no Muslim bruv” at the attacker in the video.

The attacker was heard calling out: “This is for Syria, for my Muslim brothers” as he rampaged around the tube station waving a bread knife, lunging at several passers.

Photographs of Lee Rigby, a British Army soldier who was beheaded by an Islamist on a London street in 2013, were found on his phone after he was arrested. 

The former Uber driver suffered from psychosis, and held the paranoid belief that he was being persecuted for his religion and stalked by MI5 and MI6.

However, despite his history of mental health problems, Judge Nicholas Hillard QC, the Recorder of London, today ruled Mr. Mire was acting as a terrorist.

According to the Evening Standard, Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC said: “This was a revenge attack in retaliation for what had happened in Syria.

“It can be no coincidence that he carried out the attack three days after Parliament had voted to extend the bombing campaign against ISIS to territory in Syria.

“The evidence clearly establishes that the motive underpinning this attack was that bombing campaign in Syria. That was at the very forefront at his mind.”

Judge Hillard said: “I’m sure the defendant did have an independent interest in extremism which led him to embrace it – his interest in ISIS and terrorism went back to the end of 2014.

“The extremely serious offence that the defendant was intent upon was designed in all the circumstances to intimidate at least a section of the public who were there to witness what he was doing.

“This was not carried out in secret, but very brazenly indeed. It was carried out to advance a religious and ideological cause.”