Police confirm sightings of missing prisoner Daniel Khalife
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Police searching for escaped terror suspect Daniel Khalife are searching the Chiswick area in west London.
This comes after 'intelligence-led activity and some confirmed sightings overnight', the Metropolitan Police said.
The manhunt for the 21-year-old on-the-run terror suspect continues after the former soldier escaped from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday morning (6 September).
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He is believed to have strapped himself to the bottom of a delivery lorry after leaving the prison kitchen in a cook’s uniform.
Commander Dominic Murphy, the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism chief, said the force is investigating after a member of the public saw a man fitting Khalife’s description walking away from a Bidfood van that had stopped near the south entrance to Wandsworth Roundabout shortly after his escape.
Police said the man, believed to be Khalife, was spotted walking towards Wandsworth town centre.
Murphy said: “This remains a fast-paced and dynamic investigation, but I want the public to know that a large number of officers are working extremely hard to locate Khalife.
“We have now received more than 100 calls from the public, and we thank everyone who has contacted us with information.
“The sighting near Wandsworth Roundabout could be very significant, and this is one of many useful lines of inquiry that officers are perusing.”
Khalife’s family have urged him to ‘give himself up’ and Murphy has urged the terror suspect to also hand himself in to police, warning that police were ‘closing in’ on his whereabouts.
The Met is offering a £20,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to the arrest of the former soldier, who was awaiting trial after allegedly planting a fake bomb at an RAF base and gathering information that might be useful to terrorists or enemies of the UK.
He was discharged from the army in May.
Khalife is said to be wearing a black baseball cap, black t-shirt and dark-coloured clothes on his legs. He’s also said to be carrying a small bag or case.
The area in west London the police are searching is Chiswick, which is about 4.5 miles from HMP Wandsworth.
Met Police officers carried out door-to-door enquiries in the hunt for Khalife. They also combed through CCTV footage and used a police helicopter to search areas of west and south-west London.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk confirmed an independent investigation will take place after Khalife’s escape, alongside two urgent reviews looking at the categorisation and placement of all HMP Wandsworth prisoners and all those in custody charged with terrorism offences.
The former soldier, who denied the three charges against him, is described as slim, 6ft 2in, with short brown hair.
Khalife has links to the West Midlands - having been stationed at the Ministry of Defence’s Beacon Barracks in Stafford - and Kingston upon Thames in south-west London, but Murphy said the hunt is covering the whole of the UK.
