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A man who went to school with the London Bridge terrorist claims he turned to ISIS after being bullied at school.

Usman Khan's former classmate remembers him as the quietest student in the class, who became a recluse and only had one friend.

The classmate, who has not been named, told how Khan desperately tried to fit in and be liked at school by wearing the latest clothes but had no confidence and would never speak up.

He claimed Khan was bullied after starting secondary school when he started to grow facial hair at an early age, before his peers .

But the classmate was shocked when just a year after leaving school, he saw him preaching hate on the streets of Stoke-on-Trent, under the black flag of ISIS.

And he slammed the authorities who let Khan out of prison to finally carry out the terror attacks he'd previously been jailed for planning to carry out.

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(Image: PA)

The man, who still lives in Stoke, said: "I couldn't believe it when I saw the man who had been arrested was Usman. We all heard that he'd been arrested and jailed for terror plots years ago, I don't understand why he was allowed to be walking the streets.

"He was a really quiet kid at school, he kept himself to himself but he was made fun of when he started growing facial hair long before the rest of us.

"There weren't many Muslim kids at our school and there was a lot of tension between the small group of Asian kids and the white kids.

(Image: FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/EPA-EFE/REX)

"Looking back, he obviously tried really hard to fit in and be liked - I remember he wore a Helly Hansen jacket and Rockport shoes, which all the cool kids were wearing at the time.

"But he always used to sit by himself at school and only really had one person you could call a friend.

"He was pretty clever and never got into trouble, the teachers all liked him."

But the source says that within months of the class leaving Haywood High School in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in 2007, he spotted Khan preaching hate on the streets.

(Image: REUTERS)

He added: "I barely recognised him.

"I remembered this quiet, well behaved lad who really had no confidence and would never speak up in class.

"But I had to do a double take when I saw him in town shouting and preaching about Allah - he had the black IS flags on a table.

“You can’t mistake that flag, when you see it you know exactly what it means and exactly what is being said, it’s disgusting that he was allowed to do that and not one official questioned what he was showing children walking up and down town.

“It’s just appalling that he was even allowed to do that.

(Image: Twitter)

“Personally, I think he was recruited by terrorists after school and found people who accepted him and so he stayed with them, and that’s why he was so different when I saw him again.

“He was a changed man, confident, outspoken and shouting about his beliefs and ideologies.

“The fact that he was already found guilty of terrorism and let free through an appeal, then was released and has now murdered two people sums up our justice system – and the people that helped his release should be looked at too.

“I was in the same class as him, we were on the same register, it’s crazy that this has happened.

“I have children and to think about bringing them up in this world is scary.”