Student nurse Mohammad Farooq in court on terror charge after St James’s Hospital scare

Turns out his target wasn’t the Maternity unit but an RAF base somewhere in Yorkshire. But he was going to do his shift at work as a student nurse first; the bomb stayed in the car and just the gun was kept about his person because he had a grudge against a colleague. 

From ITV News the Yorkshire Post and the Shropshire Star

A student nurse was allegedly found with a “viable” bomb outside a hospital in Leeds after plotting a terror attack on an RAF base, a court has heard.

Mohammad Farooq, 27, was allegedly inspired by radical Islam and Jihad when he carried out “hostile reconnaissance” of the military base in Yorkshire on January 10 and 18 after carrying out online research…Westminster Magistrates Court was told.

Prosecutors say he chose the target because of online encouragement to carry out a “lone wolf” attack at the site.

He is said to have constructed a bomb made from a pressure cooker, 13.7kg of a homemade low explosive mixture and a length of pyrotechnic fuse. I use my pressure cooker to cook vegetables and steam puddings – maybe I should use my imagination more. 

Farooq was arrested outside St James’s Hospital in Leeds last Friday, where he had been due to work a shift.

He was allegedly in possession of the explosive device and an imitation firearm – a Gediz 9mm P.A.K semi-automatic pistol.

Farooq is said to have told a man he “felt like killing everyone” before showing him a gun, then told police officers he had a bomb. His actions at the hospital are not alleged to have been motivated by terrorism but a grudge towards another member of staff.

The hospitals Gledhow wing, which houses maternity services, had to be partially evacuated and visiting was temporarily suspended while explosives experts dealt with the incident.

Farooq, from Roundhay, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday from a police station in Bradford wearing a grey tracksuit. There was no application for bail and Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring remanded him in custody ahead of his next appearance at the Old Bailey next Friday.

Part of me is relieved that his stupidity led t0 his plot being foiled, more of me is worried that somebody that stupid and unstable was accepted for nurse training  as  a mature student in the first place.

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