Police have launched an urgent manhunt for a prisoner who fled from jail on Christmas Day.

Mahad Elmi, 27, left an open prison in Buckinghamshire and is now unlawfully at large, Thames Valley Police said.

The force said he absconded from HMP Springhill, near the village of Grendon Underwood, overnight on Thursday into Boxing Day.

Thames Valley Police described Elmi as a 'black man, around 5ft 8ins tall, of medium build' with 'medium-length black hair, a beard and brown eyes'.

The force said he has links to south-west London. It is currently unclear why he was behind bars. 

The blunder is the latest controversy to hit Justice Secretary David Lammy who is facing pressure over a surge in mistaken inmate releases. 

In October, Algerian prisoner Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was accidentally freed from scandal-hit HMP Wandsworth in London. 

And Sir Keir Starmer's government is still recovering from the fallout surrounding the mistaken release of migrant sex attacker Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford just days earlier. 

Mahad Elmi, 27, left the open jail in Buckinghamshire and is now unlawfully at large, Thames Valley Police said

Police said Elmi absconded from HMP Springhill, near the village of Grendon Underwood, overnight from on Thursday into Boxing Day

The public have been told not to approach Elmi and instead call 999. 

Detective Sergeant Matthew French, of Buckinghamshire's Priority Crime Team, said: 'We are appealing for the help of the public to trace Mahad Elmi, who is unlawfully at large after leaving and not returning to HMP Springhill.

'If you see Elmi, do not approach him and call 999 instead.

'If you have any information as to where Elmi may be, please call 101 or make a report online, quoting reference number 43250653119.'

HMP Springhill, which houses more than 300 inmates, is classed as a Category D prison.

According to the Prison Service, this means it has 'minimal security and allow(s) eligible prisoners to spend most of their day away from the prison on licence to carry out work, education or for other resettlement purposes'. 

Fury over mistaken prisoner releases came to a head in October when sex offender Kebatu was freed in error from HMP Chelmsford instead of being deported.  

The Ethiopian migrant, who was convicted of attacking a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, Essex, was arrested in Finsbury Park, north London, three days later.

Kebatu was paid £500 in taxpayers' money to leave after threatening to disrupt his removal from the UK.