Escapee Daniel Khalife pulled off bike by plain clothes officer

1. Escaped prisoner Daniel Khalife has been arrested by police in north-west London
2. The ex-soldier was pulled off a bike by a plain clothes officer on a canal towpath near Northolt
3. Khalife escaped Wandsworth prison, south-west London, on Wednesday morning
4. A four-day search ensued, with a reward of £20,000 offered by police
5. He had previously been charged with terror offences and had been in Wandsworth on remand pending trial
6. Watch BBC News live coverage by clicking the 'play' button at the top of the page

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This page was edited by Lauren Turner and Natasha Preskey. It was written by Adam Durbin and Emily McGarvey.

For more on Daniel Khalife's arrest, you can read our news story here.

What has happened today?

We're closing our live coverage soon. Here's a quick roundup of everything that's happened:

• Daniel Khalife has been arrested in the Northolt area of north-west London
• Police say they detained him at 10:41 BST and he remains in custody, rather than being returned to prison
• The ex-solider broke out of HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday, just over 12 miles from where he was arrested
• A four-day manhunt focused primarily in south-west London, the area of the city where Khalife is from and knows well
• Officers focused on Chiswick overnight and into the morning, after witnesses placed him in the area
• The search included more than 150 police officers, sniffer dogs, a police boat on the River Thames and helicopters
• Khalife had been facing three charges, including two terrorism offences, before he made his escape from Wandsworth prison by latching onto the underside of a delivery lorry

Watch: Met Police on how Daniel Khalife was found

Khalife pulled off bike by plain clothes officer - Met Police

Commander Dominic Murphy has spoken about how tip-offs from the public helped police to track down Daniel Khalife.

What do we know about Daniel Khalife?

BBC

Here is what we know about the 21-year-old:

• Khalife was born in Westminster in 2001, along with his twin sister
• He is British and has Lebanese heritage on his father's side
• Growing up, his family life was in and around the south-west London borough of Kingston upon Thames
• He attended Teddington School, a local mixed comprehensive with good results, and left after his GCSEs in 2018
• A school friend described him as a normal teenager - funny but not badly behaved
• Khalife is also a talented runner
• After school, he joined the Army, becoming a private in the Royal Signals Regiment, based at MOD Stafford
• Khalife had been due to face trial in November after pleading not guilty to three offences: obtaining information about members of the armed forces from the Ministry of Defence Joint Personnel Administration System, a bomb hoax and a spying offence
• The BBC understands that this last allegation relates to Iran

You can read more on him here.

Timeline of public sightings of Khalife

PA Media

The area where Khalife was arrested this morning

The Met said its investigation had a breakthrough last night following an intelligence-led operation in the Richmond area of south-west London.

A call from the public then led police to search on Spencer Road in Chiswick, west London.

There were further calls from members of the public about sightings of Khalife on Church Street in Chiswick and on Chiswick Mall, police said.

Khalife was then pulled off a bike by a plain clothes counter-terrorism officer on the towpath of the Grand Union Canal in Northolt - just over 12 miles from Wandsworth Prison - at 10:41 BST this morning.

Met recognises impact of search on public

The police said they recognised that people had been “inconvenienced” at borders by the search.

“These are not decisions we take really lightly and it was really important to us, and for the investigations, and clearly for the country – this man was charged with breaches of the Official Secrets Act," said Commander Dominic Murphy.

He called it a "very significant" case and said this was a "necessary part of our strategy" to find Khalife.

Khalife will face trial over original offences and new offences - police

Police say Khalife will still face trial for the original offences with which he'd been charged, and there will be a further investigation into the new offences related to his escape.

Police will also look for anyone "who helped or supported him" in his escape, they added.

Daniel Khalife is currently under arrest on suspicion of escaping from lawful custody.

He was first accused of trying to spy for an enemy state, understood to be Iran, obtaining information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, and plotting a fake bomb hoax.

Arrest happened 12 miles away from prison

We've just heard from the Met that the arrest details are different to what was previously released.

Daniel Khalife was arrested on a canal towpath near Rowdell Road, Northolt, in the UB5 postcode area of north-west London - just over 12 miles from HMP Wandsworth.

Earlier, the Met said the escaped prisoner was arrested in the Chiswick area, in west London.

Khalife was pulled off a bike by a plain-clothed counter-terrorism officer.

More than 100 calls from public, Met Police say

More from the Met now, who say Khalife has been arrested on charges of being unlawfully at large and being an escaped prisoner.

Commander Dominic Murphy says the public played an integral role in Khalife's arrest, and that police had received more than 100 calls to report possible sightings last night and this morning.

The ex soldier is currently being held in a west London Police station, he adds.

BreakingKhalife pulled off bike by plain clothes officer

We've just heard from the Metropolitan Police, who have given some more details about how Daniel Khalife was arrested.

He was stopped on Rowdell Road in Northolt, north-west London - rather than in the Chiswick area, where he was previously spotted by a member of the public - by a plain clothes police officer, Commander Dominic Murphy says.

Khalife was riding a bicycle near the canal. An officer pulled him off the bike, and he was detained.

Once he had been stopped, the ex-solider was fully co-operative, Murphy adds.

'He looked at me, I looked at him' - eyewitness

Vinnie O'Dowd

BBC News

An eyewitness who spotted Khalife in Chiswick on the way home from a west London restaurant last night has described seeing a man wearing black clothes.

"He looked at me like very odd because there was nobody there on the street but my brain didn't switch on," Ruth Planting, 44, tells the BBC.

"He looked at me, I looked at him - he was definitely in the wrong location at the wrong time."

Ms Planting said she didn't report the sighting to police as she hadn't clocked at the time that the man was Khalife.

A timeline of Khalife's arrest and escape

PA Media

Police found Khalife in the Chiswick area in west London earlier today

January 2022: Khalife arrested and released on bail

January 2023: He is charged with terror offences and appears at Westminster Magistrates' Court a day later where he is remanded in custody

February: Case sent to the Old Bailey and Khalife attends brief preliminary hearing

May: Khalife is discharged from the army

July: He appears at the Old Bailey for a plea hearing, facing an additional third charge under the Official Secrets Act. He denies all charges and a six-week trial is set for November at Woolwich Crown Court

6 September: Khalife goes missing, still wearing his cook's uniform from HMP Wandsworth. His escape prompts extra security checks at major transport hubs

7 September: Manhunt continues, two junctions on the M20 are temporarily shut due in part to ramped up security checks

8 September: Police search Richmond Park in west London, and say force is considering whether the escape was an inside job. A possible sighting of Khalife walking towards Wandsworth town centre shortly after his escape is also investigated, and police offer a £20,000 reward for any information on his whereabouts

9 September: The Met announces officers are searching Chiswick in west London, telling members of the public to "remain vigilant". Khalife is arrested by police in Chiswick a few hours later just before 11:00 BST

'Too many prisoners and not enough staff'

Daniel Khalife's escape from HMP Wandsworth has raised questions over staffing in prisons and whether flaws in the system led to a lapse in security.

Former director general of the Prison Service Phil Wheatley said the system was "in a degree of chaos at the moment" and there were "too many prisoners and not enough staff".

Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said "in an ideal world" Wandsworth (a facility where performance had been rated as of serious concern) would be shut.

Critical understaffing at the prison made the escape possible, said Mark Fairhurst of the Prison Officers' Association.

This concern was shared by the area's Labour MP. Rosena Allin-Khan obtained government data at the start of the year showing that, on one day in December 2022, around a third of daytime prison officer shifts were unfilled.

Khalife was wearing black baseball cap and t-shirt, police said

Daniel Khalife held a job in the kitchens at HMP Wandsworth, and an inmate who worked there alongside him told the BBC that Khalife would unload lorry deliveries.

Khalife had been brought in as a vulnerable prisoner to work alongside other inmates in the kitchen, Chris Jones told the BBC.

He was wearing his prison-issue cook's uniform of a white T-shirt, red and white chequered trousers and brown steel toe cap boots when he escaped.

Met Police

This morning, police said Khalife was thought to wearing a black baseball cap and dark-coloured clothing, as well as carrying a small bag or case.

He was arrested in west London this morning after a four-day manhunt.

Police searching gardens hours before Khalife found

Earlier today in Chiswick, west London, where Daniel Khalide was eventually found, police told residents "to keep vigilant".

Paul Wade, a local, said he opened his curtains this morning to find five police officers outside his home.

"They were checking everybody's gardens. Our neighbour told us there were sniffer dogs," the 79-year-old told the PA news agency.

"As we understand it, they just clambered over the walls and inspected, they didn't wake everybody up. They just checked. They had helicopters above."

Tracking Khalife harder due to lack of digital footprint

Dominic Casciani

Home affairs correspondent

I've been covering terrorism stories for almost 20 years and one standout element of this investigation is Daniel Khalife's lack of digital footprint for officers to track.

When a man breaks out of prison, you've got to assume he doesn't have a phone or any kind of payment card - two critical parts of digital sleuthing you can do in a modern city.

In this situation, it's possible that Khalife didn't have anything on him at all, so officers were entirely reliant on the goodwill of the public to help spot him.

That's why the appeals from Scotland Yard were critical, to get the police that first step.

In my experience watching these things, it's very often that sighting that becomes critical - because police can then follow up and chase the person down.

How big was the search for Khalife?

BBC

Police were searching for 21-year-old Khalife for four days. Extra security checks at airports and ports led to long delays for passengers, as authorities believed he may have been attempting to leave the country.

Officers searched all car boots at the Eurotunnel and at Dover in case he was trying to stow away.

But when Khalife was found on Saturday morning, he was in Chiswick, west London - about five miles from Wandsworth Prison.

Police had been reviewing CCTV footage and a police helicopter had also been searching parts of west and south-west London in recent days and nights.

The Met had sought the public's help, releasing several images of Khalife and asking people to call 999 if they saw him, but not to approach him.

Armed officers and police dogs searched parts of west London, as a police boat patrolled on the River Thames.

Police stopped and searched vehicles and asked local residents for their identification.

The Met Police is yet to give more details on how Khalife was finally found.

Minister warns against prejudicing future trial

PA Media

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk says he will leave "no stone unturned" in the investigations launched after the escape.

In a statement, he says: "With Daniel Khalife now in custody, the legal process must be allowed to take its course. Nothing should be said or done to prejudice any future trial.

"The investigations I requested into prison security and categorisation are well in train, and I will leave no stone unturned in getting to the bottom of how this serious breach was possible."

The minister also thanked the police for their efforts since Khalife broke out of Wandsworth prison on Wednesday and praised the "continued focus and professionalism" of prison service staff.

Search played out like a TV show

Mark Easton

Home editor

These kind of escapes are, mercifully, very rare.

But because of the manner of this one, the almost bravado in the way Khalife managed to escape Wandsworth prison, there has been huge public interest in the search.

It has been a bit like an episode of the TV show Hunted, with the authorities trying to work out what's gone on.

Now they've got their man and now comes the business of working out what on earth went wrong.

There will be an investigation into the circumstances and Justice Secretary Alex Chalk has said he wants to know what needs to be learned.

Watch: A four-day manhunt... in 79 seconds

For anyone in need of a catch up, we've summarised the last few days in a short video for you:

Daniel Khalife: The four-day manhunt... in 79 seconds