Former solider Daniel Khalife managed to escape from underneath a delivery van somewhere between HMP Wandsworth and Upper Richmond Road, the Met Police have revealed.
The 21-year-old terror suspect only had one hour and five minutes from the moment of his escape until the police stopped the van and searched the vehicle.
While no trace of Khalife was found inside the van, strappings were discovered which suggested he had been clinging on while it was exiting the prison gates.
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met Police’s Counter Terrorism Command said that the vehicle had exited the gates of HMP Wandsworth at 07.32am before turning right onto Heathfield Road.
As he set out details of the route taken by the van before it was stopped by police, which Khalife was believed to have been strapped underneath as it left the prison, he said the force had received more than 50 calls from the public which had provided “some really valuable lines of inquiry”.
In a briefing on Thursday, he told reporters: “This was a really busy area of London and we’ve had no confirmed sightings in any of that information, which is a little unusual and perhaps a testament to Daniel Khalife‘s ingenuity in his escape and some of his movements after his escape.
“It’s important that we remember we have some of the best military in the world here in the UK and he was a trained soldier. So, ultimately, he has skills that perhaps some sections of the public don’t have and I am really keen that we are using everything in our means to find him.”
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