An inquest into the death of an 11-year-old boy has been dramatically adjourned after new evidence suggesting a 'choking game' was rife at his school emerged.

Asad Khan was found by his mother after she forced her way through his locked bedroom door and discovered his hanged body.

It has previously been claimed he was being bullied at a new school and was doing homework for other pupils in the weeks before his death.

But new evidence emerged just hours before the inquest into his death was due to proceed at Bradford Coroners' Court on Monday.

It was claimed that a 'choking game' was being played "all over the school" at the time of Asad's death.

The youngster had attended Beckfoot Upper Heaton school in Bradford for just three weeks before he died on September 28, 2015.

Ruth Bundey, legal representative for the family, made an application for the inquest to be adjourned in light of the new evidence.

The game had never been mentioned during interviews with witnesses, Asad's family claims.

Ms Bundey added that she believed the reluctance of some witnesses to attend court may have been due to not wanting to speak about the 'game'.

She told the coroner: "As I understand it, the children had been interviewed until the end of 2016. These interviews had been completed.

"A police officer visited the student support officer in January of this year and she mentioned to him a choking game that was 'all over the school' at the time.

"There has been reluctance from the interviewed children to attend court and it is possibly because these children knew about this game.

"Therefore, there has to be an adjournment in this case."

Coroner Martin Fleming agreed to adjourn the inquest for a statutory 28 days but Ms Bundey suggested the family may seek a longer adjournment with a judicial review at the High Court.

Mr Fleming said: "I am provisionally going to adjourn this inquest for 28 days until July 3.

"It is my view that we have all of the appropriate witnesses in court today, this is an adjournment on speculative grounds, we will review this in 28 days."

Ruth Bundey, speaking outside court after the adjournment, said: "The new evidence is absolutely stunning.

"We only learned today that an officer visited the school in January, six months ago, and was told that at the time of Asad's death, the game was 'all over the school'."

She added: "We have never heard any of this before.

"We also wonder whether the reluctance of all of the children who have been contacted in this case to come anywhere near this inquest is because they knew this background and didn't want to have to talk about it."

The family were also issued an apology by the police officer after CCTV they believed to show Asad talking to the student support officer on the day of his death - but was told at the pre-inquest review didn't exist - was in fact available.

Ms Bundey added: "The police have also told us that they have all sorts of new CCTV to show us and on the basis of these two aspects, I applied for the coroner to adjourn.

"He refused and we now have to ask for his decision to be reviewed. We are now going to apply for judicial review."

Speaking outside the court, family spokesperson Fatima Patel added: "It is very important to highlight how disappointed the family have been with the way that the police have investigated this case.

"This case has been going on for the last six months and the family were hoping for some closure in this case.

"Sadly, with the new information, that is not going to be the case.

"Unfortunately this process is going to take much longer and it is not what the family want at this time."