‘I hugged an armed man to stop him from blowing up a hospital’

Nathan Newby spent two hours convincing Mohammad Farooq to abandon his plan to bomb a hospital in Leeds, England Bruce Rollinson/PA In Leeds, northern England, a patient intervened to prevent a bomb from detonating at a hospital and revealed he had hugged the man planning the attack to help calm him down. Nathan Newby received the George Medal from King Charles III, in recognition of his courage. He spent two hours convincing “lone wolf terrorist” Mohammad Farooq to abandon his plan at the local St. James hospital in 2023. In his first interview, Newby, 35, said: “I hate going to hospitals, but that day I was there for a reason and it wasn’t because I was sick. I was there because of what was happening.” Farooq worked at the hospital and was convicted of preparing terrorist acts. He will be imprisoned for a minimum of 37 years. Newby was treated for a chest infection at the time. He says he had gone out for a vape and “some fresh air”, when he saw Farooq outside the maternity ward, restless and looking anxious. “He looked out of place, so I went to see if he was okay, if I could cheer him up,” says Newby. “He was always looking at a bag that was almost two meters away.” Newby received the George Medal from King Charles III during a ceremony at St James’s Palace in London Aaron Chown/PA Wire Newby convinced Farooq to open the bag and show its contents. It was a homemade bomb, made with a pressure cooker and 10 kg of explosives. During the trial at the court in Sheffield, England, it was estimated that the bomb was “twice the size” of the device used in the 2013 Boston Marathon attack, which killed three people and injured hundreds of others. “I thought there was no way to get out of there now,” Newby said. “So I should stay with him.” “If I had run, he would have panicked,” he recalls. “I stayed with him, trying to get out of his head what he wanted to do, get to know him, find out what he was thinking and see if I could change it.” ‘Lone wolf’ Farooq had worked as a nursing assistant at the hospital. But he was described by the courts as a “self-radicalized lone wolf terrorist”. Jurors heard that he had a grudge against his colleagues and wanted to “kill as many nurses as possible” at the time of the planned attack, in the early hours of January 20, 2023. Newby asked Farooq what the potential radius of destruction caused by the explosion would be and convinced him to move away from the building’s entrance. “The hospital is normally busy, people come and go all night,” he says. “There was no one there, just him and me. There was no one I could send a signal to.” The court heard that Farooq had watched “anti-Western propaganda” on social media and downloaded terrorist manuals, including one teaching how to make a bomb. After his arrest, police discovered that he was armed with knives and a fake pistol. Farooq was found guilty at his trial in July 2024 North East England Counter Terrorism Police Newby said he had spoken extensively with Farooq about his own problems, to try to make him feel better about himself. “He asked me to get up and give him a hug. I said ‘yeah, here’s the hug, man’.” “He then replied ‘I want you to phone the police before I change my mind’.” Newby asked Farooq if he could use his phone to call emergency services as his had run out of battery, whilst subtly filming Farooq during the conversation. During the call, he asked Farooq if he had any other weapons. Farooq opened his jacket to show the fake gun, which Newby asked him to place on a bench. The police arrived armed shortly afterwards and Farooq was arrested. Farooq planned to “kill as many nurses as possible” at St James’s Hospital, court heard North East England Anti-Terrorism Police According to the court, Farooq’s first target was the RAF Menwith Hill spy base, near the city of Harrogate, around 25km from Leeds. It is operated by American and British employees. When he realized this was not possible, jurors learned that Farooq changed his objective to a “softer, less protected target”, which was St James’s Hospital. Judge Cheema-Grubb described Newby as an “extraordinary man”. She declared that her testimony was “one of the most remarkable ever received by the court.” Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford said Newby’s “simple act of kindness” “almost certainly saved many lives”. Superintendent Paul Greenwood, head of investigations at North East England Counter Terrorism Police, said he had never seen an attack so narrowly averted. After Farooq’s conviction, Greenwood stated that “he was the right person, in the right place, at the right time, as most people would not have done what he did”. Farooq was arrested outside the hospital, with a homemade bomb in a PA pressure cooker “When I got back to my hospital room and lay down on the bed, that’s when I realized what happened,” Newby recalls. “It’s just crazy that if I hadn’t rushed to the hospital with that chest infection, I would be home, he would have gone all the way and I would be seeing it on the news.” Newby received his George Medal, awarded in recognition of acts of great bravery, during a ceremony at St James’s Palace in London on Wednesday (25/3). This is primarily a civilian award, but can also be given to military personnel for courageous conduct other than “in the face of the enemy.” He said the honor was “a lot to take in” but admitted he felt “proud to save lives.” “I like to think that anyone would do this,” he highlighted. “Some people are strong and some people handle things differently, but this is me, it’s just how I am.” Speaking after the ceremony, Newby’s family said they only learned about his act of courage on TV some time after the incident. With him at St. James’s Palace, his mother, Tracy, said she was proud that her son had received the award. “He deserves it, he’s a good boy,” she declared. READ ALSO: US Senate approves funding for Trump administration after chaos at airports How Iran uses the Strait of Hormuz as a global economic guerrilla weapon ‘Renewed trauma’: Epstein victims sue US government and Google over identity disclosure

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