British detectives are racing to find three runaway London schoolgirls amid growing concern that they have fled to Syria to join the brutal Islamic State (IS).
Scotland Yard are urgently trying to trace Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and an unnamed 15-year-old, all from east London.
The three friends all go to the Bethnal Green Academy school, are described as "straight-A students" and are good friends with another 15-year-old girl who fled to Syria in December.
They flew to Turkish city Istanbul from Gatwick Airport on Tuesday without leaving any messages behind and their families are "devastated" by their disappearance, according to Commander Richard Walton, head of the Metropolitan Police's counter terror command.
He said there was a "good chance" the girls were still in Turkey but the force has been "increasingly concerned" by a growing trend of young girls showing an interest or intent in joining IS, an organisation now notorious for its barbaric treatment of hostages and oppression of women.
The three girls left their homes on Tuesday morning providing their families with "plausible" reasons as to why they would be out for the day.
They boarded a Turkish Airlines flight bound for Istanbul later that day.
Turkish Airlines did not notify police that the girls were on board the flight.
"We are concerned about the numbers of girls and young women who have or are intending to travel to the part of Syria that is controlled by the terrorist group calling themselves Islamic State," Mr Walton said.
"The choice of returning home from Syria is often taken away from those under the control of Islamic State, leaving their families in the UK devastated and with very few options to secure their safe return.
"If we are able to locate these girls whilst they are still in Turkey we have a good possibility of being able to bring them home to their families."
A spokesman for the East London Mosque said the girls had been misled.
"I do not know what was promised to them. It is just sad. We have not had anything like this before in our community," Salman Farsi said.
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