A police officer from Thailand is being hailed as a hero after he stopped a knife-wielding man in a very unorthodox way.

Security footage shows Officer Anirut Malee take down the knife-wielding man with a hug. Yes, you read that correctly!

The footage was captured at the Huay Kwang police station in Bangkok last month, and it started when the man entered the station with a knife. Instead of grabbing his gun, Anirut decided to talk to the man. He ended up stopping him in his tracks by comforting him with a hug.

“I heard him out and sympathized and said I had a guitar to give him, and suggested we go out for a meal together,” Anirut said. “We were conversing in Southern Thai dialect.”

“We try to negotiate first,” he continued. “I could have wrestled him down and taken his knife away, but what if he ended up hurting himself?”

Anirut added that the man was angry because he had not been paid in his job as a security guard. He was also a musician who had recently had his guitar stolen, so life did not seem very good for him in that moment.

“I told him, ‘Please calm down, brother. If you want a guitar, I can give you one. I promise you, but you must lay down your knife first,’” Anirut recounted. “I had to make him feel he could trusts me.”

This just goes to show that sometimes a hug is all someone needs to turn everything around! Watch the exchange below.