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He questioned the 22-year-old attacker’s intelligence and doubted his ability to carry out the Manchester terror attack, which killed 22 people and injured 119, alone. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One, the unnamed caller, who attended Burnage Academy for Boys with Abedi, said his former classmate “fits the profile for a suicide bomber”. He said: “He didn’t come across as an intelligent person, he almost seemed like he was in his own world. “He didn’t have an idea of what was going on. Very slow to answer questions, wouldn’t answer any questions from the teacher.”

ENTERPRISE•GETTY Salman Abedi "didn’t come across as an intelligent person", according to a former classmate

He didn’t come across as an intelligent person, he almost seemed like he was in his own world Former classmate of Salman Abedi

He agreed “100 per cent” with the suggestion that the bomber may have been “manipulated by people more clever than he was”. “I can’t even imagine the idea that he would be able to go through with such a complicated procedure,” he said. “He must have had help.” But reflecting on his school days, he admitted it was easy to see how Abedi could have become a suicide bomber. He said: “I wasn’t shocked – that’s not to say that I could predict or I could have expected that he would do such a thing but considering the type of demographic, he fits the profile for a suicide bomber.”

Manchester bombing: Investigation so far Wed, May 24, 2017 The investigation so far into the Manchester bomb attack that killed at least 22 people, with more than 60 injured after Salman Abedi detonated a bomb in the Manchester Arena, at 10:30pm Monday, 22 May 2017 Play slideshow PA 1 of 15 Handout photo courtesy of Alex Finnie, of men wearing body armour during a raid of a block of flats in Blackley, north Manchester, following the attack on Manchester Arena