Capture of terror suspect hailed as triumph for newanti-terror centre

The capture of the escaped terrorism suspect Daniel Khalife has been hailed as a vindication of a decision to bring together police and the intelligence agencies into a new £412m surveillance centre.

- Matthew Weaver

The four-day search for Khalife was coordinated at the Counter Terrorism Operations Centre (CTOC) in West Brompton, London, where counter-terror police worked alongside members of MI5 and MI6 for the first time in a manhunt.

The situation room at the centre has access to spy technology including facial recognition, the CCTV network and phone tracking data.

The use of this surveillance, including intercepted phones of those linked to Khalife, are all thought to have been used in the search.

The Met's counter-terrorist commander, Dominic Murphy, said the centre, which opened in 2021, played a central role in Khalife's capture.

He said: "One of the unusual things about this investigation is for the first time we've run this type of inquiry from our new CTOC, which brings counter-terrorism policing, SO15, into close proximity to all our partners." He added: "This was the first big operation they did and it shows this is working because we're working very closely."