A British man accused of being in the US illegally broke out of a migrant detention centre with the help of Left-wing activists.

Ahmed Mohamed escaped from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody on Tuesday while being transferred to an immigrant detention centre in California.

Mohamed, who has been charged with narcotics and weapons offences, was shackled and being frogmarched to an ICE facility in downtown Los Angeles when a masked man, understood to be a pro-immigration protester, helped him to escape while guards were distracted, Homeland Security sources told The New York Post.

The suspect was then loaded into a waiting van and made his getaway with the help of other protesters, according to ICE.

After a three-day manhunt, Mohamed was tracked down and “swiftly arrested” on Friday by ICE agents in San Diego, who shared a social media post of the suspect.

“You can run from the law but you cannot hide,” the post read.

“After escaping ICE custody with the help of pro-illegal alien activists, Ahmed Mohamed of the UK was swiftly apprehended and placed back into ICE custody.

“On top of his charges and convictions for narcotics and weapons possession, he will now be charged with escaping from confinement.”

Mohamed ‘reunited with handcuffs’

The agency signed off by thanking San Diego ICE staff for “reuniting Ahmed with his handcuffs”.

The detention centre was targeted by anti-ICE protesters in June, when rioters threw rocks at police and blocked off major roads in an attempt to push back against Donald Trump’s deportation programme.

Mr Trump responded by deploying 2,000 members of the National Guard and 700 marines to quell the protests, with Karen Bass, the LA mayor, accusing the president of acting like a bully.

The administration’s show of force sparked fury from Gavin Newsom, the state’s Democratic governor, who warned that “Democracy is under assault before our eyes”.

Mohamed is the latest British citizen to be detained by ICE agents, after Orlando Duncan Da Silva Bain, 19, was arrested in New York in May.

On entering the US, Da Silva Bain allegedly failed to declare his UK criminal record, which included child sex offences, according to ICE.