The Maine teenager and suspected Islamist extremist who allegedly lunged at NYPD officers with a machete near Times Square on New Year’s Eve said, “Allah Akbar” or “Allahu Akbar” during the attack, police sources told The Post.

Trevor Bickford, 19, was charged with attempted murder and assault Monday for the Dec. 31 attack that left three cops injured, including a rookie who suffered a skull fracture his first day on the job.

A police source said the suspect was heard uttering, “Allahu Akbar” as he suddenly set upon the cops working the holiday security detail not far from the ball drop at the Crossroads of the World.

“Allahu Akbar,” or “God is Great” in Arabic, has been co-opted by Muslim extremists in recent years as a battle cry during terror attacks.

But the alleged cop-hating teen may have botched even that and said “Allah Akbar,” instead, according to other sources.

Bickford, of Wells, Maine, had toyed with joining Islamic militants in Afghanistan but instead allegedly came to the Big Apple on Dec. 29 — telling his family he was coming as a tourist, sources have said.

Instead, he sparked terror when he slashed the cops with an 18-inch blade and was shot in the shoulder by one of them two days after his arrival.

Bickford, once a seemingly typical New England teenager from a tiny resort town in Maine, “found religion” after his father’s overdose death in 2018, neighbors and sources said this week.

He became “radicalized” as recently as a month ago, and ventured to the city alone on an Amtrak train, according to sources. He possibly camped overnight at Forest Park in Queens and booked a room at a Bowery hotel on the Lower East Side on Friday night, the sources said.

Cops later found a hand-written manifesto in which he urged his family to “embrace Allah” and chided his US Marine Corps brother for allegedly losing his way.

Bickford was being held at Bellevue Hospital pending his court arraignment.