He Gave His Life: How Policeman Died While Hugging a Suicide Bomber Just to Protect Colleagues

File photo: Algerian police officers

According to a Metro UK report, a police officer sacrificed himself by jumping on a suicide bomber to protect his colleagues from the blast.

The attacker tried to get into a police post in Algeria early on Thursday morning, wearing a suicide vest.

But the quick thinking selflessness of one officer avoided what could have been much more extensive carnage.

State news agency APS said he hugged the bomber before he could get inside.

‘One of the officers in an act of bravery, threw himself on the attacker to protect the others in the entrance of the police station,’ they said.

Another officer who was wounded in the blast later died, the national police said in a statement, bringing the death toll to three including the attacker.

Attacks and bombings have become rarer in Algeria since the end of the country’s 1990s war against armed Islamists, but al Qaeda and small brigades of militants tied to Islamic State are still active and often target armed forces.

The attack early on Thursday morning happened around 300 kilometers (190 miles) west of Algiers.

It was the first suicide attack in months in Algeria. A militant tried to blow himself up at a police station in Constantine in April and another was shot dead in an attempted bombing in the same city in February.

Gunmen attacked an Algerian military patrol in an area south of the capital in June, slightly wounding four gendarmes, in an attack later claimed by Islamic State.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the group’s North Africa branch, is still active in Algeria, but small groups of militants loyal to Islamic State have also been carrying out more recent attacks.