Friends of a Queensland teenager, who is believed to have travelled to Syria, say he has been transformed and influenced by "the wrong people".
The 18-year-old, named by News Corp Australia as Oliver Bridgeman, failed to return from a humanitarian trip to Indonesia.
Federal counter-terrorism police intelligence suggests he is in a conflict zone and Mr Bridgeman is suspected to have aligned himself with an al-Qaeda-linked terror group.
The Gold Coast student moved back to Toowoomba with his family last year, The Courier-Mail reports.
He had reportedly converted to Islam after becoming friends with several Muslim students at school.
"We knew he had gone a bit strange but never imagined he would do anything like this," one friend told the newspaper.
"He was just a kid who loved school, football and music."
A Facebook page set up under Mr Bridgeman's name shows him with friends on the last day of the 2014 school year and playing football with children in Indonesia in March this year.
Another profile, under the name Yusuf Oli, shows Mr Bridgeman posing at mosques.
"Extremism is as a result of lying against Allah," one post from December 2014 reads.
"For when the extremist fails to produce evidence and interpretation, he resorts to lying against Allah to fulfill (sic) his whims."
A statement from Mr Bridgeman's family said: "We had no indication that he was making plans to travel to the Middle East, however we now know that he is probably there. "We do not believe he is participating in fighting of any kind, nor supporting or participating in terrorist acts."
Islamic Society of Toowoomba president Dr Shahjahan Khan said Mr Bridgeman had attended some prayer sessions.
"Whatever he is doing is no way linked to Toowoomba," he told ABC radio.
"I think it's something else that comes from online. It has nothing to do with the Toowoomba community or Toowoomba Islam."
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