A MENTAL health patient told a stranger "you're the crazy one" seconds after trying to stab her in the street, a court heard.

Nicola Edgington, 32, attacked Kerry Clark at a bus stop outside Asda in Broadway, Bexleyheath on the morning of October 10, 2011.

The 22-year-old was rolling a cigarette and waiting for the B12 bus to work when she caught sight of a woman coming at her with a knife, the Old Bailey heard today.

Despite never having met or seen her attacker before, Miss Clark found herself on the ground desperately trying to keep the 12 inch blade from piercing her chest, the court was told.

Miss Clark said: "She was screaming 'You f**king bitch. You f**king bitch'.

"My instant reaction was to just put my hands up and try to protect myself from the knife.

"I just went straight up and tried to cup the blade with my hand."

With Edgington on top of her Miss Clark said she managed to wrestle the knife from her assailant and force her away.

She added: "I think I kicked her but I'm not completely sure.

"She just stood there and I said 'What's wrong with you you crazy b***h? What are you doing?'

"She said 'I'm not the crazy one; you're the one holding a knife in your hand'.”

A "bewildered" Edgington then barked "Give me my f***ing knife back" to which Miss Clark refused, she told the court.

Suffering cuts to the palm and fingertips of her right hand during the assault, she watched Edgington calmly cross the street.

Having attacked Miss Clark with a weapon bought minutes earlier in Asda, Edgington went into the British Meat Market and stole a meat cleaver, the jury had previously heard.

She is then accused of using it to almost decapitate 58-year-old Sally Hodkin near the town war memorial.

The unemployed long-term mental health patient of Ambedkar House, Flavell Mews, Greenwich, denies one charge of murder and another of attempted murder.

The trial continues.