UK police launch urgent appeal after terrorism suspect escapes prison

British police said they had issued an urgent appeal after a former soldier suspected of terrorism offences escaped from a London prison on Wednesday.

Daniel Abed Khalife, 21, who was awaiting trial on charges relating to terrorism and the Official Secrets Act, is believed to have escaped from HMP Wandsworth shortly before 8 a.m. (0700 GMT), London police said in a statement.

The Sun newspaper cited a prison source as saying he had got out through the kitchens and then by clinging onto the bottom of a delivery van.

Tracking down the escaped prisoner 

Police advised the public not to approach Khalife, who is 6ft 2ins tall (1.88m) and was wearing a white T-shirt, red and white chequered trousers, and brown steel toe cap boots.

"We have a team of officers who are making extensive and urgent inquiries in order to locate and detain Khalife as quickly as possible," said Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the London police's Counter Terrorism Command.

"I also want to reassure the public that we have no information which indicates, nor any reason to believe that Khalife poses a threat to the wider public."

At a previous court appearance in February, Khalife, who was based at barracks in central England at the time of the alleged offenses, was accused of eliciting or trying to elicit information "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".

He was also charged with making a bomb hoax by placing three canisters with wires on a desk "with the intention of inducing in another a belief that the said article was likely to explode or ignite".