The charges were brought against Trevor Bickford, who police say attacked three officers just outside the Times Square security zone where New Yorkers gathered by the tens of thousands on New Year’s Eve.

The assailant hit two officers on the head, without causing life-threatening injury, before another officer used his service weapon to wound him in the shoulder.

Bickford is from Wells, a small coastal town in Maine, the New York police department said, without providing further details.

According to US media, Bickford recently exhibited signs of Islamist radicalisation and may have sought to commit a suicide attack.

He was carrying a diary in which he had expressed his desire to join the Afghan Taliban and die as a martyr, CNN said, citing anonymous sources.

The FBI had questioned him in mid-December after one of his relatives warned the bureau of his jihadist statements, NBC News reported.

An FBI counterintelligence unit is involved in the investigation, New York police commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a news conference Sunday.