Daniel Khalife was caught when he was pulled off a push bike by a hero plain-clothed officer, police have said.
Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism boss Commander Dominic Murphy said on Saturday (September 9) the 21-year-old former soldier, who escaped HMP Wandsworth four days ago, was arrested on suspicion of being unlawfully at large and being an escaped prisoner.
Khalife was arrested on a canal towpath near Rowdell Road, Northolt, north-west London, a little over 12 miles from HMP Wandsworth.
Earlier, the Met said the escaped prisoner was arrested in the Chiswick area of west London.
Commander Murphy said: “In terms of the investigation, it really gathered momentum yesterday afternoon, with a number of calls from the public, but really took a different course last night, when we did an intelligence-led search in the Richmond area in the early hours of this morning.
“Whilst we didn’t find him at that search, while we were at that search, we had a number of calls from the public over the next hour or two, giving us various sightings of him.”
Addressing the arrest, Mr Murphy said after he was pulled off the push bike, Khalife was “fully cooperative and handcuffed and arrested”.
He said: “At 10.41am he was arrested in Rowdell Road in UB5 in London on the canal towpath.
“He was actually arrested by a plain clothes officer… and he was riding a pedal cycle, so a pushbike, at the time, was pulled off that pushbike by that officer and arrested at that location.
“Upon being detained by the officer he was fully co-operative and handcuffed and arrested.”
Officers were seen checking people’s gardens, stopping cars, inspecting car boots and asking residents for their IDs throughout the morning.
Mr Murphy said the Metropolitan Police received well over 100 calls from members of the public, with the number increasing substantially on Friday evening and in the early hours of Saturday.
He described the investigation as “extremely complicated” with a lot of police activity being led by intelligence.
Detailing where Khalife had been spotted, Mr Murphy said the force was informed of two sightings in the Chiswick area, causing them to redeploy resources into the area.
Mr Murphy added the last confirmed sighting of the suspect was in the Church Street and Chiswick Mall area.
