The manhunt appeared to narrow around 40 hours after ex-soldier Khalife, 21, fled HMP Wandsworth, South-West London, wearing his chef’s uniform on Wednesday morning.
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Now officers have been seen guarding every entrance to 2,400-acre Richmond Park.
Police vehicles are racing around surrounding roads as choppers circle overhead.
A source confirmed to The Sun that the huge police activity around Richmond Park was linked to the ongoing hunt for Khalife.
The park is two miles south of where cops swooped on the van thought to have carried Khalife out of HMP Wandsworth.
One onlooker said: “There are so many police involved. It’s a huge operation – they must have a good reason to think he might be in there.”
The Kingston flat where Khalife grew up is close to the edge of the park, which is London’s biggest.
The hunt for Khalife has sparked chaos nationwide – with additional security checks on the roads causing delays.
Airports and ports were placed on high alert as anti-terror police scrambled to stop the prisoner leaving UK soil.
Questions are now mounting over Khalife’s escape plot after it emerged staff waited an hour to alert police that he was missing.
Khalife escaped in a chef’s uniform of a white T-shirt, red and white chequered trousers and brown steel toecap boots.
He is thought to have used makeshift straps to attach himself to the truck as it was waved out of the notorious lock-up.
The van left Wandsworth Prison at 7.32am, taking a right turn out of gates onto Heathfield Road.
It then turned left onto Magdalen Road and left againonto Trinity Road (A214) up to the Wandsworth Roundabout – taking the first exit onto Swandon Way (A217).
It then turned left onto Old York Road (past Wandsworth Town station) then left onto Fairfield Street, and right onto Wandsworth High Street (A3).
It stayed straight ahead onto West Hill and then on to Upper Richmond Road (A205).
The van was stopped by cops chasing Khalife at 8.15am on Upper Richmond Road – over an hour after Khalife was declared missing at 7.50am.
Prison officers did not notify cops about his escape until 8.15am.
The ex-soldier, who is accused of planting fake bombs at a UK military base, also reportedly tried to make a previous bid for freedom.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk revealed a probe will be launched into the prison as he made a speech in the House of Commons today.
An additional independent investigation will also take place in the future.
Khalife has a military background and previously served in the British Army.
He is currently awaiting trial for terrorism offences.
Khalife, who was attached to the Royal Signal Corps before being discharged, is accused of leaving fake bombs at an RAF base in January.
He vanished for more than three weeks after the bomb hoax before being arrested on January 26.
Another charge, under the Official Secrets Act, alleges Khalife collected personal information about soldiers from an MoD computer system that could be useful to an enemy.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard he left the device “with the intention of inducing in another the belief the item was likely to explode or ignite”.
He was being held on remand at Wandsworth prison and was due to stand trial on November 20.
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