Manhunt continues as Police comb Richmond Park for fugitive ‘Iran spy’

Police searching escaped terror suspect Daniel Abed Khalife (pictured centre and proper) had been scouring Richmond Park this morning amid ideas the previous soldier may very well be utilizing his military coaching to cover on the market. Officers had been seen guarding entrances and exits to the two,400-acre park whereas two helicopters with heat-seeking cameras circled overhead for hours. The positioning is round two miles from the jail.

Khalife, 21, fled HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday morning by strapping himself beneath a meals supply van. He was on remand awaiting trial for terror offences and is accused of getting spied for Iran. Detectives assume he had exterior assist to flee the jail and worry he may very well be anyplace on the earth. A supply near the investigation instructed MailOnline: ‘If I used to be him I might be a whole bunch of miles away from Wandsworth however we’ve to make sure he isn’t on our doorstep. The van he was in was a few miles from Richmond Park so it must be searched – and from the air is the simplest means. Officers might be on the website in a single day however I count on the park to open as normal within the morning, which is an indication they have not discovered what they had been on the lookout for.’

The dramatic search got here after a day that noticed numerous items of CCTV launched of the lorry Khalife fled in driving via southwest London. The escapee isn’t clearly seen within the photos, together with one video filmed inside 200 yards of the jail gates. Sources mentioned it might present he dropped off his hiding place as quickly because the Bidfood supply van left the jail partitions. Khalife had over an hour to flee the neighborhood of Wandsworth jail on Wednesday earlier than police caught up with the supply van he had strapped himself underneath to flee. Yesterday, Dominic Murphy, the pinnacle of Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command unit, mentioned he was protecting an open thoughts about the potential of accomplices when he was requested whether or not the hostile state had been concerned within the audacious jail breakout.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk has now introduced an unbiased investigation into the ‘grave safety breach’. The safety degree of all terrorism inmates can also be underneath overview, he mentioned. Because the hunt for the lacking prisoner continued, Commander Murphy warned that Khalife was a extremely expert soldier who was educated to evade seize. He managed to roll out from beneath the van because it travelled throughout a busy highway in south London with out being seen by a single motorist or pedestrian. Ports and airports had been on excessive alert yesterday, with police having to close a part of the M20 motorway briefly resulting from enhanced safety checks on lorries heading in another country.

In a single incident, an harmless traveller who bore an unlucky resemblence to Khalife was seized at Banbury station in Oxfordshire, and was solely launched when fingerprint anaysis probed he wasnt the fugitive. ‘It is completely potential he is right here or he has already left the nation,’ Mr Murphy mentioned. ‘There’s been an enormous effort in borders throughout the nation making an attempt to establish if Daniel Khalife has been making an attempt to depart the nation. We’re focusing our efforts for the time being within the UK and in London, which is the place for the time being we imagine him to be, however we are going to maintain an open thoughts.’ The officer recommended the escape was effectively deliberate and the fugitive could have entry to cash and new clothes. He had fled a jail kitchen, the place he was working, wearing a chef’s outfit.

One inmate, who labored alongside Khalife within the kitchens, instructed the BBC: ‘We at all times used to joke about that lorry – leap in it and drive off. However there was quite a lot of safety employees across the kitchens, so it’s a shock he received via there.’ Mr Murphy mentioned: ‘Khalife’s out within the open now, so who’s to say whether or not he has cash obtainable to him. He is a really resourceful particular person, clearly, and our expertise of him reveals that. So nothing is off the desk with him for the time being.’ In addition to the search of Richmond Park and the neighboring Wimbledon Frequent, efforts focussed on the two.7mile route taken by the van. The driving force unknowingly carried Khalife out of the jail at 7.32am. He wasn’t declared lacking for nearly 20 minutes and officers solely caught up with the van at 8.37am.

Detectives are scouring CCTV to hint his actions. However regardless of receiving greater than 50 calls from the general public, there has not been a single sighting. This was ‘maybe testomony to Khalife’s ingenuity’, Mr Murphy mentioned. He added: ‘We now have a few of the greatest army on the earth right here within the UK and he was a educated soldier. In the end he has abilities maybe that some sections of the general public haven’t got.’ Khalife, described as being of slim construct, with quick brown hair and 6ft 2ins tall, is a former soldier within the 22 Sign Regiment. He faces a six-week terror trial, standing accused of leaving faux bombs at a military base in Stafford. Whereas he has hyperlinks to the Kingston-upon-Thames space of London, as he grew up there, police are trying to find him up and down the nation. In London, cops had been seen swooping in on the car he strapped himself to with a view to escape the Class B jail he was saved in.

Video footage shared with MailOnline revealed that officers pulled the Bidfood van over on the Higher Richmond Street in Putney, Southwest London at 8.37am yesterday morning, round two miles from the jail. Officers utilizing sniffer canines spent two hours combing via the car and looking out beneath it, however nothing aside from the straps he used was discovered. An onlooker, who shared the dramatic movies, instructed MailOnline this night: ‘The police pulled up behind the van after ordering it to cease. They spent a couple of hours trying right through it, within the again, within the driver’s cab, beneath it and even on high of it. That they had sniffer canines making an attempt to select up the scent of one thing, however they did not discover something of any observe.’

A senior defence supply mentioned Khalife’s coaching within the British military makes him adaptable and resilient, and tougher to catch than the common individual. The unnamed supply instructed the Telegraph: ‘We train [soldiers] initiative, command duties, downside fixing abilities. We practice folks effectively, to be people, to adapt, overcome and improvise. ‘He is not within the infantry so does not have the identical resilience degree as an infantry soldier, however even our primary troopers are educated to be resilient to adapt, overcome and survive in harsh and unpredictable environments. The supply added: ‘We do one thing known as ‘survive, evade, resist and escape’, often known as SERE coaching. It is one of many primary annual coaching occasions every year. ‘Troopers are taught learn how to escape within the wild, to construct shelters, and primary communication abilities.’

Officers had been additionally protecting an in depth watch on an upstairs flat in Kingston, near the sting of Richmond Park, the place Khalife’s mom and twin sister are understood to have lived till a couple of years in the past. A neighbour instructed The Day by day Telegraph: ‘A lady lived upstairs who had a son and daughter. The boy would come and go swearing loudly. She moved to Wales roughly three years in the past – a 12 months after we moved in. The household had been British, of Center Jap origin. They did not discuss to us or anybody else on the street very a lot that I might see. It is worrying to assume that this younger man would possibly head again to this space after escaping from jail.’

A number of former classmates of his completely instructed MailOnline that he was a shy and awkward little one who was routinely bullied in school. One former classmate mentioned: ‘He was a bit awkward and received bullied a bit. ‘He received made enjoyable out of and pushed round fairly a bit.’ One other mentioned: ‘He wasn’t tremendous well-liked. He wasn’t tremendous into music or artwork that I do know of. He would simply hand round with buddies, identical to some other teenager. He was barely [more intelligent] than common, however not amazingly. I can not comprehend that it is the identical man who did all the things they’re accusing him of.’ A former inmate who was locked up with him in HMP Wandsworth mentioned he was an ‘odd sausage.’

Chris Jones, a 53-year-old who used to work in HMP Wandsworth’s kitchens with Khalife, instructed the BBC: ‘One lunchtime he got here in saying that he was going be well-known. I instructed him: ‘I feel you’ve got received on the fallacious bus, mate. He would come to work with a comb and mirror consistently checking his look, though I can not say I assumed a lot of it.’ One army supply who knew Khalife when he was serving, described him as ‘humorous’ and ‘likeable’, however mentioned typically he might appear ‘a bit dim’. However he added: ‘That might have been an act as he is clearly received sufficient nouse about him to get away from stuff. Not a typical oddball, there weren’t clear warning indicators.’ A former soldier who was buddies with him whereas they had been cadets in Dorset instructed the Solar: ‘He was the primary individual in his household to enroll to the Military. He was a little bit of a loner, he was an enormous gamer – liked Name of Obligation.’

In the meantime the Justice Secretary has introduced a sequence of inquiries amid questions why Khalife had not been positioned in a most safety jail – comparable to Belmarsh – and whether or not there had been ‘collusion’ aiding his escape. All prisoners charged with terror offences can have their safety categorisation reviewed, Mr Chalk (pictured) instructed MPs. The safety ranking of all Wandsworth prisoners will even be checked out. Mr Chalk mentioned he was ‘instinctively sympathetic’ with MPs who questioned why Khalife was in a medium safety, Class B jail. He has requested jail bosses for preliminary reviews by the top of this week. ‘Early indications are that the safety posts had been manned in Wandsworth on the time of the incident,’ he instructed MPs. ‘So now we have to know – that having been manned, what went fallacious?’

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