An Iraqi asylum seeker who detonated a homemade bomb on the Tube at Parsons Green in a bid to maim and murder commuters during morning rush-hour is facing life in prison today.

Ahmed Hassan, 18, plotted “carnage” on the Underground with an improvised device he had filled with a volatile explosive and packed with 2.2kgs of metal shrapnel.

The teenager rigged the bomb with a modified kitchen timer, set to explode at Parsons Green station as scores of passengers headed to work on September 15 last year.

The device only partially detonated, the Old Bailey heard, but sent a fireball shooting through the carriage which left thirty people injured and many more traumatised by the incident.

Iraq-born Hassan sneaked into the UK less than two years earlier, telling the Home Office in January 2016 he had been “trained to kill” by ISIS after he was forced to join the extremist group in his native Iraq.

The teen was referred to the government’s anti-terrorism Prevent service, given counselling from the Freedom from Torture organisation, and housed in a hostel run by charity Barnardo’s.

He was eventually settled with foster parents in Sunbury-on-Thames, maintaining that ISIS had forced him into terror training by threatening to murder his uncle and brother.

But at trial Hassan claimed it had all been a lie to support his bogus claim for asylum, telling the jury he had never been involved with ISIS and had travelled across Europe in search of a “better life”.

He denied attempted murder but a jury found him guilty unanimously this morning, as the defendant stared intently at the floor of the dock.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave told the teenager he had been convicted "on overwhelming evidence" and will sentence him next week.

The true motive for the bombing remains a mystery, as Hassan insisted during his evidence that he had built the device to burn rather than explode and was living out a fantasy as an international fugitive after watching Mission Impossible films.

Alison Morgan, prosecuting, suggested Hassan had spent weeks plotting the bombing during last summer, angry at the death of his father in a 2006 bombing raid during the war in Iraq.

"You were given a safe haven to live in this country. You were given a home and an education and you felt guilty about that, didn't you?”, she asked of the teenager.

"You felt guilty that you had let down people in Iraq by coming here and accepting a safe haven in the country that you held responsible for your father's death."

The court also heard Hassan’s own claims that he had been “trained to kill” by ISIS while in Iraq, told to a Home Office official when he was applying for asylum in January 2016.

Barnardo’s workers said they saw Hassan watching a video featuring guns, masked men, and the ISIS black flag, as well as catching him listening to a song about “slaughtering” people.

Hassan told the jury he had travelled to the UK from Iraq via Turkey, Italy and France, eventually managing to sneak into Britain on a Channel Tunnel train.

He was detained by the Italian authorities on his journey, he said, but was set free again without any action being taken to challenge his immigration status.

While appearing to be a “shy” teenager with signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, Hassan settled well into British life, winning a ‘student of the year’ prize last summer from Brooklands College in Surrey.

However, he spent the prize, an £20 Amazon voucher on chemicals used to make the explosive TATP – the same volatile mixture which was used in recent terror attacks in Manchester, Brussels, and Paris.

Hassan was caught on camera shopping in Asda and Aldi for parts for the bomb, which he constructed at home in an old bucket, using a Tupperware box and a vase to hold the explosives and packing it with shrapnel including knives, screwdrivers, and metal sockets.

He took the bomb, concealed under a pair of trousers in a Lidl shopping bag, to Sunbury train station, heading to Wimbledon where he armed the device in the station toilets.

Hassan then got on the District Line towards Edgware Road, leaving the ticking bomb on the floor when he got off the train at Putney Bridge.

The court heard he had already taken steps to hide his planning, including wiping his computer, and headed to Dover in a bid to escape capture. When he was stopped by a border guard, Hassan claimed he was only there to meet a friend.

Victimes of the bombing were forced to relive the ordeal during the trial, telling jurors how they were badly burned when the fireball ripped through the carriage.

Retired counter-terrorism officer Alex Beavan, who was among the 93 passengers in the carriage, said: “I heard a huge popping sound. Looking towards the direction of the sound, I saw a rolling fireball coming over the ceiling at the back of the train.

“Everything goes in slow motion. There was a woman. I could see her realise what was happening and she began screaming and some men were shouting ‘Run’.”

Lucinda Glazebrook was among those who suffered serious burns and told the court: “I kept touching my face and feeling the back of my hair and my hair was coming out in chunks, and I asked somebody if my face was burnt, because I couldn’t see it but I felt the heat from the fireball so I was scared of the damage that it had done to my face.”

More people were injured during a stampede to evacuate the train and get out of the single entrance to Parsons Green station.

Hassan was on a bus towards Earl’s Court when the blast happened, and was caught on camera hiding the SD card on his phone, which had key evidence about the making of the bomb.

During his evidence, he told the jury: "I wish I could travel back in time and stop it at once but that's not possible. I'm very sorry but it can't be done."

He denied the charge of attempted murder but was convicted at trial. The judge will be handed medical reports on Hassan before passing sentence.