A man has admitted carrying out a series of random knife attacks, injuring five people including a woman who was left paralysed.

Jason Kakaire, 30, stabbed four men and a woman in Edmonton, north London, over three days last spring.

Four of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries, and one was paralysed after being knifed in the back with such ferocity that the handle snapped and the blade was embedded in her.

The stabbings, in March and April last year, were all carried out near Kakaire's home in Cameron Close, north London.

Kakaire, who had been held in Broadmoor Hospital, denied five counts of attempted murder.

But on the first day of his Old Bailey trial, he pleaded guilty to five alternative charges of wounding with intent and five charges of having a blade in public.

The prosecution accepted the guilty pleas and the case was adjourned until Tuesday when the facts will be opened.