Daniel Khalife remains in police custody as manhunt for escaped prisoner ends
Terror suspect Daniel Khalife remains in police custody after the 21-year-old was arrested in the London suburb of Northolt after four days on the run.
After a mass search by land and air, the former soldier was captured at 10:41 a.m. Saturday after being pulled from a push bike by a plainclothes anti-terrorism officer.
The Metropolitan Police said Khalife, who escaped from HMP Wandsworth four days ago, was arrested on suspicion of being unlawfully at large and an escaped prisoner.
He was arrested on a canal towpath in west London, about eight miles from where he was last seen by a member of the public, and is now in police custody, police said.
Footage obtained by The Sun newspaper showed Khalife sitting on the canal towpath after his arrest, with a bike, a Waitrose cooler bag and a sleeping bag nearby.
Officers conducted an “intelligence-assisted search of a residence” in the Richmond area and while Khalife was not found there, police received a number of calls from the public with sightings of the suspect nearby.
The Met’s counter-terrorism chief, Commander Dominic Murphy, told reporters on Saturday: “As far as the investigation goes, it really gained momentum yesterday afternoon with a series of calls from the public, but it really took a different turn last night taken when we conducted one.” An intelligence search was conducted in the Richmond area in the early hours of the morning.
“Although we did not find him during this search, over the next hour or two we received a number of calls from the public giving us various sightings of him.”
Mr Murphy said Khalife was “fully cooperative” as he was handcuffed. Some media reports said he was “laughing” when he was arrested.
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He added that police were yet to claim the £20,000 reward.
Security sources reportedly told the Mail on Sunday that the wanted fugitive was arrested after spies from the British Secret Service’s new nerve center, made up of agents from MI5, MI6 and special police, tapped the phones of people they believed to be him were connected to the escaped convict.
The newspaper also reported that two Wandsworth prison guards were suspended following Khalife’s escape, although the Ministry of Justice declined to comment.
Investigators believe the former soldier escaped from HMP Wandsworth by strapping himself to the floor of a van after leaving the prison kitchen in a chef’s uniform.
It is unclear whether he will be returned to the Category B prison or to a higher security location.
Khalife was awaiting trial after allegedly planting a fake bomb at an RAF base and collecting information that could be useful to terrorists or enemies of the UK.