Man with 'Islamic extremist leanings' attacks NY police

A man reported to have Islamic "extremist leanings" attacked police officers in New York with a hatchet on Thursday, injuring two before being shot dead, police and a monitoring group said.

The man, identified in the US media as Zale Thompson, had posted an array of statements on YouTube and Facebook that "display a hyper-racial focus in both religious and historical contexts, and ultimately hint at his extremist leanings," the SITE monitoring group said.