UPDATE #2 Police are issuing an urgent appeal to the public to help trace a 21-year-old man who has escaped from prison. Daniel Abed Khalife (27.09.01) was reported to police after escaping from HMP Wandsworth this morning, Wednesday 6 September. Khalife was on remand at HMP Wandsworth, awaiting trial in relation to terrorism and Official Secrets Act offences. From our initial enquiries, it is believed he escaped from the prison at approximately 07:50hrs. Khalife was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, red and white chequered trousers and brown steel toe cap boots. He is of slim build, has short brown hair and is around 6ft 2ins tall. Khalife has links to the Kingston area. It is believed he most likely remains in the London area at this time, although he may have travelled further afield.

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Daniel Abed Khalife: Terror suspect escapes Wandsworth Prison

Former British Army soldier Daniel Abed Khalife, 21, has been awaiting trial on charges of breaching the Official Secrets Act. His escape has sparked extra security checks at Gatwick and Heathrow airports.

A former soldier has escaped from Wandsworth prison while awaiting trial for terror and Official Secrets Act offences.

The Metropolitan Police have issued an urgent appeal to trace Daniel Abed Khalife who is believed to have made his getaway on Wednesday morning.

The 21-year-old suspect is alleged to have escaped from the prison - one of the UK's largest - under a food truck, a Whitehall source has told Sky News.

It is understood he was working in the kitchen and was wearing a chef's uniform, and is believed to have held on to straps on the truck to make his escape.

Khalife, a former member of the Royal Signals who was based at Beacon Barracks, Beaconside, Stafford, was on remand at the south London prison awaiting trial accused of breaching the Official Secrets Act by collecting information "useful to an enemy".

He was originally charged with two offences on 27 January following an investigation by the Met's Counterterrorism Command.

He was a serving member of the British Army at the time, but was discharged in May "as a result of being held on remand for these charges," an army spokesperson said.

The UK's Counterterrorism Command was informed about Khalife on Wednesday morning - and an alert was sent out to all UK airports and ports.

Sky News understands extra security checks at Gatwick Airport are the result of the prison escape, which is believed to have happened at around 7.50am.

"Additional security measures are currently in place at London Gatwick and other UK airports and ports," according to an airport spokesperson.

Heathrow Airport has also warned of the possibility of longer wait times at departures due to the "additional checks", while the Port of Dover has warned of some delays on traffic leaving the country due to "enhanced checks".

It sounds a little odd that these 'enhanced checks' should cause such serious disruption.

Khalife was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, red and white chequered trousers and brown steel toe cap boots.

He is described as being around 6ft 2ins tall, of slim build and with short brown hair.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police Counterterrorism Command, said: "We have a team of officers who are making extensive and urgent enquiries in order to locate and detain Khalife as quickly as possible.

"However, the public can help us as well and should anyone see Khalife, or have any information as to where he might be, then please call 999 immediately.

"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, but our advice if you do see him is not to approach him and call 999 straight away."

A senior Met Police figure has told Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt that Khalife is considered to be "very low risk" but that officers are making "extensive and urgent inquiries".

He is thought to still be in the UK, and is believed to have connections to Kingston, in southwest London.

Counter terror officers are leading the investigation, and are focusing their search efforts in the capital, according to Commander Murphy.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said he had called a meeting with the governor of HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday to ensure "all necessary steps" had been taken to "secure the prison and progress the investigation".

First opened more than 170 years ago, in 1851, HMP Wandsworth is a category B men's prison.

The prison, in southwest London, holds prisoners taken directly from courts in the local area after sentence, as well as those on remand awaiting trial.

Most UK terror suspects are kept in southeast London's HMP Belmarsh - a category A prison which is considered the UK's most secure.

Khalife appeared at the Old Bailey from Wandsworth jail in July to deny a charge of breaching the Official Secrets Act which alleges he committed "an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state".

It states that between 1 May 2019 and 6 January 2022 he "obtained, collected, recorded, published or communicated to any other person articles, notes, documents or information which were calculated to be or might be or were intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy".

He also denied a charge under the Terrorism Act, which alleges he "elicited information about individuals who are members of His Majesty's forces" on 2 August 2021.

The charge relates to him allegedly "obtaining personal information from the MoD Joint Personnel Administration system of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".

Khalife further pleaded not guilty to carrying out a bomb hoax on or before 2 January by placing "three cannisters with wires on a desk in his accommodation" with the intention of inducing in another a belief this was "likely to explode or ignite and thereby cause personal injury or damage to property".

He is due to face a six-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court from 13 November.

A former Russian regional customs chief and his son have been injured in an assassination attempt by the Ukrainian security service, according to media reports.

Yury Afanasievsky, who previously headed the customs service in the Lugansk People's Republic, was identified by Russian and Ukrainian media on Tuesday as the intended target of a plot involving an improvised explosive device.

In a statement, the Russian Investigative Committee did not identify those involved by name but confirmed that the attack had taken place last Sunday, and that a female suspect, a Lugansk resident, had since been apprehended.

The suspect allegedly gave one of the victims a mobile phone containing an explosive charge, according to the statement. The device detonated after the phone was switched on, reportedly injuring Afanasievsky and his son. The committee added that both victims were being treated in hospital, but that their lives were not at risk.

TASS cited regional sources as saying that Afanasievsky's 21-year-old son had several fingers amputated, and that his father had received only slight injuries.

Ukrainian media cited government sources as claiming that the operation had been organized by the SBU, Kiev's security service.

Ukrainian outlets also claimed that Afanasievsky was in intensive care with serious injuries. They described him a "major general" and "agent" of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who has been sanctioned by Western nations.

The Lugansk People's Republic broke away from Ukraine after the 2014 armed coup in Kiev. Russia recognized its independence last year, and agreed to include it as a new region after the population voted for the move in a referendum last September. The Ukrainian government has claimed the ballot was a sham and is seeking to retake the region by force.