'Lone wolf had goal of killing as many nurses as possible'

Hospital worker with cooker bomb 'talked down' by hero

- KATIE DICKINSON and LUCY THORNTON

AN alleged lone wolf terrorist was stopped from detonating a bomb at a hospital by a patient who talked him out of it, a jury heard yesterday.

Mohammad Farooq, 28, allegedly planned to "kill as many nurses as possible" before he was arrested with a pressure cooker bomb.

Prosecutors say the hospital worker wanted to "seek his own martyrdom" through a "murderous terrorist attack" by detonating it.

He was seized outside the Gledhow Wing of St James's Hospital in Leeds, in the early hours of January 20.

Opening the trial yesterday, Jonathan Sandiford KC said "lone wolf" Farooq had immersed himself in extremist Islamic ideology and initially planned to attack RAF Menwith Hill, a base in North Yorkshire used by the US.

"When he thought that was not possible, his plan B was to attack St James's, a softer and less well-protected target than a base," Mr Sandiford said.