A 21-year-old man suspected of terrorist offenses has escaped from Wandsworth prison in London.
Daniel Abed Khalife was dressed in chef’s clothes and escaped by clinging to the underside of a food truck, according to Sky News sources.
A large police manhunt is underway – and airports and ports are being asked to be on their toes.
Daniel Abed Khalife, a former British soldier, has escaped from Wandsworth prison in London, British media write. The 21-year-old is in custody pending trial. He is suspected of terrorist crimes, as well as of having handled classified documents.
The escape took place on Wednesday morning. Daniel Abed Khalife was working in the kitchen shortly before the escape and was dressed in a chef’s uniform. According to sources of Sky News he is said to have escaped by clinging to the bottom of a food truck.
“Extensive and urgent investigations”
London police have sent out a security alert to all UK airports and ports which are now being asked to be on their toes. The UK’s counter-terrorism force has also been informed of the incident.
– We have a team of officers who are carrying out extensive and urgent investigations to locate and arrest Khalife as quickly as possible, Dominic Murphy, head of London’s counter-terrorism forces told the channel.
At the same time, he emphasizes that the man on the run poses no danger to the public.
At the city’s airports, extra security checks are carried out because of the escape.
“Extra security measures are currently activated at London Gatwick and other UK airports and ports,” a spokesperson for the airport told Sky News.
“Heathrow is operating as usual. However, due to extra security checks, waiting times for passengers may be longer than usual,” writes Heathrow on X.
Collected information about employees
The trial against Daniel Abed Khalife begins on November 13 and is expected to last six weeks.
He is suspected of two different crimes. One suspicion states that the 21-year-old must have obtained information “that is or was intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy” over a period of almost three years.
Daniel Abed Khalife is also accused of having collected information about employees in the army “that could be useful to a person who commits or prepares a terrorist act”.
He is also said to have on one occasion left technical equipment in one of the Ministry of Defense’s premises in Stafford “with the intention of inducing belief that the object would likely explode or detonate”, writes BBC.
The channel reports that he allegedly worked for a “hostile state”.
He has denied the allegations.