British police said that an ex-soldier accused of spying for Iran escaped from a London prison on Wednesday.
Daniel Khalife is accused of collecting information "directly or indirectly useful to an enemy," according to the BBC.
The BBC reported that the state Khalife is accused of gathering information for is Iran.
His trial had been set to begin in November.
Khalife, 21, escaped from the Wandsworth prison in southern London on Wednesday at 8:00 a.m.
A major manhunt is underway to track him down, with enhanced security checks at ports and airports which have led to delays for passengers.
Perry Benton says he believes Khalife "would have carefully planned this" and there are a number of ways he could have fled the country, including by trains and via ports.
Khalife appeared in court in London on January 28 and was remanded in custody over two incidents at the Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Stafford, central England, near the army barracks where he lived.
Accusations against Khalife that arose in 2021 include attempting "to elicit information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".
He was also charged with planting a hoax bomb at the Royal Air Force base in Stafford, central England, on 2 January this year.
The public was warned not to approach him but to call the police immediately.
"We have no information which indicates, nor any reason to believe that Khalife poses a threat to the wider public," said Dominic Murphy, the head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.
