SHEFFIELD – A pair of British Muslim friends came to the rescue of a nurse who was robbed near Northern General hospital in Sheffield, England, detaining the thief until the police arrived later.

“As we drove past the bus stop I saw a guy approach a woman who was waiting and steal a mobile phone out of her hand,” Akeel Hussien, 17, recalled the incident as he was with his 20-year-old friend Zeeshan Mughal, Sheffield Telegraph reported.

“I looked at Zeeshan and said ‘he’s just mugged that woman’. I was really shocked and angry at what I had seen.”

Akeel, who was a passenger in the car, said they were shocked by what they were seeing and could not sit back and let the mugger get away with it.

“I ran up to him and said ‘look, that’s not your phone, you need to give it back’. He threw a punch at me, but missed, so we both pushed him up against the wall,” said Akeel.

The mugging of the nurse was not the first incident in this area.

“There’s been a lot of muggings in the area and everyone is on the look-out for it,” Akeel said.

“When we saw this woman being robbed, there was no way we were going to stand back and let it happen. It’s just not right to behave like that.” Zeeshan added.

“This guy did apologize and hand the phone back. Another woman at the bus stop had called the police in this time, so we held him there until they showed up.”

“We were speaking to the woman afterwards and it turns out she was a nurse who had just finished her shift.” said Akeel

The victim, Ana Santos, was grateful to these young men.

“Thank you so much for saving my day. It’s nice to know there are very good and kind people in the world,” she told the Muslim pair.

Zeeshan and Akeel were both glad that they could help.

“She was really happy to have her phone back and we were more than happy to help.”