A man has been charged with trying to set off a bomb outside of a hospital in the UK that he said was “double the size” of the one used in the deadly 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Mohammed Farooq, 28, was caught on suspicion of trying to attack the hotel where he worked at St. James’s Hospital in Leeds on January 20, 2023.
According to BBC News, on June 19, the Sheffield Crown Court looked over his interview records from after he was arrested. In them, he denied planning acts of terrorism but admitted to having an explosive substance with the intent to use it.
A second charge against Farooq was having a paper that could help someone who was planning or carrying out a terrorist act.
The news source says that Farooq said the pressure cooker bomb had about 7 kg (15 lb) of gunpowder in it and could “blow up a room” when asked about how powerful the claimed explosive was.
The clinical support worker said, “It should have been twice as big as the Boston Marathon bomb.” They also said that no one else was involved and that it was a “lone job.” Three people were killed and more than 250 were hurt in the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. At least 17 of the survivors lost limbs in the deadly attack.
In another part of the interview, Farooq talked about why he set off the bomb and said he did it to scare his coworkers for “spreading rumors about me.”
The source says he said, “This has been building up for about a year now.” “There’s only so much a person can take.”
“I wasn’t going to hurt anyone,” he said, adding that he had warned the boss by text message to “scare them” and “get some revenge.”
“Just to see the look of fear in their faces, that’s all,” said Farooq. “I look after patients, that’s my job, I don’t want to hurt more people and send them to the hospital.”
The news source says that Farooq told a patient at the hospital called Nathan Newby about his plans. Newby told him that his plan “wasn’t worth it.” After that, he told Newby to “call the police.”
West Yorkshire Police Det Con Maisie Stevens said that after he was arrested, they found gunpowder, a blank-firing gun, nails, two knives, and other tools in his home in Leeds.
When they searched the property, they also found “numerous fuses” and explosives parts.
Source: PEOPLE
