Hugging it out” is perhaps not the tactic that most of us would adopt if we found ourselves face-to-face with a would-be terrorist. But, in an astonishing – and no doubt life-saving – move, this is exactly what 35-year-old patient Nathan Newby did in 2023, after learning that “lone wolf” Mohammad Farooq was planning to detonate a bomb at St James’s Hospital in Leeds with the intention of “kill[ing] as many nurses as possible”.
Newby, who is set to receive the George Medal for his act of bravery, encountered Farooq outside the hospital. When he noticed that the other man seemed agitated, Newby struck up a conversation with him, to try and “cheer him up”, he told the BBC.
