A violent motorbike thug who attacked a car passenger at traffic lights with a machete has been jailed for eight years.

Dominic Cummins was caught on a traffic camera in Bow Common Lane attacking three passengers with the weapon at the lights with St Paul's Way.

He is seen on camera crossing St Paul's Way, stopping on the pavement, then turning his bike round to attack the three passengers.

The 21-year-old from Invicta Close in Bow Common was sentenced on September 24, after previously being found guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court of attempted GBH with intent and possessing an offensive weapon.

Cummins was passing the stationary car at the crossroads in Bow Common Lane when he recognised one of the men.

He stopped on the pavement, turned and went back, then pulled a large machete from his trousers.

The driver and front passenger jumped out and fled on foot along St Pauls' Way chased by Cummings, but got away.

The biker returned to the car at the lights and forced open a rear door.

Another passenger who had a knife himself jumped out, but tripped and dropped it.

Cummings went for him with his machete, stabbing him several times, slashing his head, chest and arms and causing severe loss of blood.

"This was a vicious attack," Det Con Andrew Bray said after the jail sentencing. "His victim is lucky to walk away with his life.

"Cummins carried out this brutal attack in broad daylight, leaving passers-by fleeing in panic and in fear for their own lives."

The detective described Cummins as "a violent individual" and praised the witnesses who came forward and helped detectives get him convicted.

The badly wounded passenger managed to get back into the car and drive off, dsspite loss of blood, while Cummins fled on his motorbike heading north along Bow Common Lane. It was unknown where the other two in the car ended up.

But Cummings was recognised. Police got a tip-off that he was the machete thug in the afternoon attack on May 21 last year who also lived in the immediate neighbourhood. They arrested him three weeks later and put him on trial last month.