UK police arrest escaped ‘terror’ suspect in London
UK police on Saturday arrested suspect accused of ‘terror offences’ who escaped from a London prison earlier this week, sparking a nationwide manhunt.
“Metropolitan Police officers have arrested Daniel Khalife. Officers apprehended him just before 11am today in the Chiswick area, and he is currently in police custody,” the force said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, currently in India at the G20 summit, told UK media he was ‘very pleased with the news’.
“My thanks to the police officers for their fantastic work over the past couple of days,” he added.
The 21-year-old former soldier fled from Wandsworth prison in south London on Wednesday morning, probably by clinging to the bottom of a delivery van.
His disappearance triggered a major hunt with extra security checks introduced at ports and airports amid fears he may try to flee the country.
Khalife last appeared in court in London on Jan 28 and was remanded in custody over two incidents at the Royal Air Force base in Stafford, central England, near the army barracks where he lived.
He is accused of “attempting to elicit information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism” in August 2021.
He was also charged with a bomb hoax by placing a suspect device at the RAF base on January 2 this year.
His trial at Woolwich Crown Court — attached to Belmarsh prison — had been set to begin on November 13.
Khalife was reported to have been working in the prison kitchen when he absconded.