A teenager accused over the Parsons Green Tube bombing has told a court he became attracted by the idea of being a fugitive.

Ahmed Hassan said the main reason he decided to make the explosive device was because he was bored and spent his summer watching action movies and documentaries on fugitives.

The 18-year-old told the Old Bailey he did not like having time off after the school year finished, and had been unable to sleep due to bad dreams.

Giving evidence as his defence case was opened during the second week of his trial he said: “The school holidays were basically my enemy. I didn’t like it because there was nothing to do. I would get very bored.”

He said he was restless and would consume as many as six energy drinks a day.

He began thinking about making the device about four weeks before he brought it on to the tube on September 15 last year.

Asked why he made it, he said: “I think the main reason, I wasn’t thinking as a normal person would do. I was very bored, very stressed, very confused and I watched lots of movies, action movies during that time.”

He added: “It became kind of a fantasy in my head. I was thinking about it. Yes, that was it.

“I was watching documentaries as well, about fugitives and just the idea of being a fugitive got into my head. And I thought about it and that was it.”

Tim Moloney QC, representing Hassan, asked: “Was that an attractive idea?”

He answered: “Very much so.”

Hassan has told jurors he had moments previously when he had thought “to give up”.

Explaining this, he told them he meant “commit suicide” and said he had hurt himself in the past.

Hassan said he searched for explosives and came across TATP which was described as “homemade” and “very easy”.

He looked up the chemicals to make it and watched YouTube videos demonstrating small amounts of it, some in front of small children, he said.

He denies denies attempted murder and using the chemical compound TATP to cause an explosion that was likely to endanger life.