Man saw Daniel Khalife day before arrest but couldnt get through to police

A man out for a run has claimed he spotted former fugitive Daniel Khalife twice just 24 hours before he was caught, but was unable to get through to police because nobody would answer the phone.

Khalife is accused of escaping HMP Wandsworth by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery vehicle using a material “which may have been from bed sheets”, and going on the run for 75 hours.

The former soldier was arrested on a canal towpath in west London at 10.41am on Saturday after being pulled off a push bike by a plain-clothes counter-terrorism officer.

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Prior to his alleged escape, Khalife had been on remand at Wandsworth Prison after being charged with terror offences in January.

And it has now emerged that police could have caught him 24 hours earlier.

According to The Mirror, Londoner Frank Noon was out for a morning run on Friday when he claims to have seen someone matching the widely-publicised description of the bloke on two occasions.

The first time he saw him was sleeping on a bench in west London, and just a few hours later – while out walking his dog – Mr Noon claims to have seen Khalife sitting in a shed at the entrance to an old cemetery nearby.

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  Escapee Daniel Khalife a 'latter-day Houdini' who fellow lags will 'likely idolise'

But when he went to report the sightings to the police using the 101 number, he was unable to get hold of anyone so “gave up”.

He said: “I phoned 101 but I couldn’t get through to anyone and I gave up.

“I never even thought to ring 999 – I’d already had an experience with the police earlier in the week where I’d reported a wallet missing and had a similar experience where I had this information but I didn’t have any way of giving it to them.”

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  Moment Daniel Khalife was confronted by plain clothes cop and 'pulled off bike'

However, he told a neighbour about it who called 999 and informed them later that day.

Mr Noon also claims that by the time evening came, the area was full of police and things it was because of his tip-off.

The Met Police has refused to comment on the claims made by Mr Noon, or the unavailability of any call handlers.

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