Police focus hunt for escaped fugitive in Chiswick after sightings

Police hunting for escaped terror suspect Daniel Khalife are searching the Chiswick area in west London after “intelligence-led activity and some confirmed sightings overnight”, the Metropolitan Police said.

Scotland Yard said the escaped fugitive is believed to be wearing a black baseball cap, black t-shirt and dark-coloured bottoms, and carrying a small bag or case.

The force said sightings included “calls from members of the public,” adding: “Officers remain in the Chiswick area and are planning to carry out further intensive search activity there through the day.”

It comes as a relative of Khalife has urged him to hand himself in as a manhunt for the escaped fugitive enters a fourth day.

A close relative told The Times they blamed the British Army for ex-soldier Khalife’s problems, while insisting he was “very, very intelligent, easy-going and kind”.

On Friday, the Met Police said it was investigating a possible sighting of Khalife walking away from a Bidfood van that had stopped near the south entrance to Wandsworth Roundabout shortly after his escape from HMP Wandsworth less than a mile away.

The ex-Royal Signals soldier broke out of jail on Wednesday morning. Police believe he strapped himself to the bottom of a delivery lorry after leaving the prison kitchen in a cook’s uniform, which they have released photos of. A £20,000 reward has been offered for information leading to his capture.

i revealed that a planned security upgrade at Wandsworth prison was more than three years overdue when he absconded.

“If I could talk to him, I would tell him to end this and give himself up, even though I understand he is afraid,” the relative said.

They told The Times Khalife’s family were secular Iranians opposed to the present regime and that Khalife had visited Iran twice when he was a child.

The relative said: “Danny doesn’t know Iran, he loves this country.”

They urged Khalife to surrender to the authorities, but did not believe that he would turn to his family for help while on the run.

“He would never want to cause us any problems. He loves us very much,” they added.

Khalife and his twin sister were brought up by their single mother in a flat in Kingston, southwest London, The Times reported.

He was estranged from his father for several years after his parents split, but his father has visited him in prison, where he was on remand for terror charges.

“Some people need guidance. Danny needed someone to tell him and he didn’t have that. One single parent can’t do that, children need to be looked after,” the relative added.

Khalife joined the army rather than go to sixth-form college, the relative said, adding: “It seemed to be what he needed, that guidance. But the army has to answer for what happened.

“He has been in the army for four years, since 2019. I don’t know what they have done to him.”

They said that Khalife went missing in January for three weeks before being charged over the hoax bombs.

The relative said: “Two years ago he was quite happy, he said he never wanted to leave, he said they were good people and then something happened last year.

“He was scared to talk about it and so he ran away. I don’t believe the allegations, he spent four years in the army, it is just silly to imagine he would betray them.”

Commander Dominic Murphy, the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism chief said the possible sighting of Khalife near Wandsworth Roundabout could be “very significant”.

He said his message to the suspect was to hand himself in: “We will be closing in on you, Daniel, you really need to come in and give yourself up.”

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.