Three control order suspects go on the run

The control orders system is in crisis and a nationwide manhunt underway after three more terrorist suspects went on the run.

Six of the 17 people supposed to be monitored round the clock have now vanished. John Reid, the Home Secretary, will issue a written statement to parliament today on the latest disappearances, which leave a major question-mark over the future of the controversial scheme.

Scotland Yard was alerted after Lamine Adam, 26 and Ibrahim Adam, 20, failed to contact a monitoring company on Monday.

A third man, Cerie Bullivant, a 24-year-old associate of the Adam brothers, has been missing since Tuesday. Lamine and Ibrahim Adam are the brothers of Anthony Garcia, 25, who was jailed last month for his part in the plot to stage a series of deadly fertiliser bomb attacks on targets including a nightclub and shopping mall.

The men were under control orders, which can impose a kind of house arrest or restrict their movements.

The system was brought in under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 after the detention of terrorist suspects without trial was thrown out by the courts.

Last year, Mr Reid disclosed that two men - a British citizen and an Iraqi - had vanished and in January he announced that a third had absconded.

Whitehall sources said the three latest missing men were at the "lower end" of individuals covered by control orders and were therefore subject to less stringent restrictions.

The control order regime has been subject to constant legal battles and Mr Reid recently said the government never claimed the system was "completely effective".

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary said: "John Reid's primary responsibility is the protection of the public. This... gravely dangerous failure to carry out that duty... threaten[s] the safety of the public."

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "This is yet another hammer blow for the increasingly discredited system of control orders."