SUICIDE bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan had regularly visited Afghanistan for military-style training, it was claimed today.

A man who knew the former school learning mentor from Thornhill Lees said he had been a regular visitor.

The man, who refused to be identified, said he regarded 30-year-old Khan as a "fruitcake" who regularly voiced anger over the effects of Western foreign policy in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said he informed police last weekend of his concern that Khan may be indoctrinating younger people with whom he worked.

The unnamed man told police that they might want to interview him to see if he knew anything about the London bombs.

He told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "From what I've heard, he used to travel extensively overseas, especially to Asia, to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"He used to regularly be out of the country, going to Afghanistan and carrying out training, every year or so."

The claims were made as detectives hoped to receive fresh evidence prompted by a CCTV image of teenage suicide bomber Hasib Hussain.

They hope it will help build a clearer picture of the London terror attacks.

Hussain, 18, of Leeds, was pictured setting off from Luton station on his mission with a military-style rucksack which, according to reports, contained an acetone peroxide bomb made from readily available household chemicals.

As police confirmed that the death toll in the attacks had risen to 54, new details emerged about Hussain's fourth accomplice.

The man is named in reports as Lindsay Jamal, although he is said to have changed his name when he converted to Islam and the exact spelling of his name is not clear.

The death toll rose to 54 last night after a man died in hospital.

He had been a passenger on the number 30 bus when Hussain detonated his bomb as it pulled into Tavistock Square.

He killed at least 14 innocent victims in his suicide mission, two-and-a-half hours after he was filmed in Luton at 7.20am.

Dressed casually in a dark anorak-style jacket and dark trousers, he looked like thousands of other young tourists heading for the capital.

Hussain, who had travelled to Luton by car from his home in West Yorkshire, boarded a Thameslink train to King's Cross with his three fellow suicide bombers - including Khan.

Khan and the other two simultaneously detonated their devices on London Underground trains at 8.50am, but Hussain did not blow himself up on the bus until 9.47am.

Detectives released the CCTV footage of him at Luton as part of a public appeal to find out what he was doing in the intervening 57 minutes.

Documents belonging to the Edgware Road bomber had been found in the wreckage of the bus there but there was no conclusive forensic evidence of his identity, anti-terrorist branch chief Peter Clarke said.

However, detectives strongly believe he was Khan, 30, a former learning mentor at a Leeds school.

He and his wife Hasina, a former pupil at Birkdale High School, Dewsbury, lived in Lees Holm, Thornhill Lees, with their baby daughter.

The hunt was being stepped up for Egyptian scientist Dr Magdy Elnashar. Dr Elnashar had been awarded a bursary by the Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship, supported by the development agency Yorkshire Forward, to work on a bioscience project.

He had been working at Leeds University and was linked to the flat in Burley where police fear the bombs could have been assembled.