Security footage appears to show three British schoolgirls, believed to be on their way to join Islamic State militants, waiting for hours at a bus station in Turkey before travelling to a city near the Syrian border, media reported.

BEING kidnapped at gunpoint is far more dramatic and terrifying than being kidnapped by malign forces on social media but the nicety of that differentiation will offer little enough comfort to the parents of London schoolgirls Shamima Begum, Amira Abase, both 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, who have, it is reasonably believed, reached the IS-controlled Syrian town of Tal Abyad with the intention of joining the terrorist organisation. What their future holds can only be a matter of the gravest speculation.

Three girls feared to be intent on joining Islamic State (IS) have crossed into Syria from Turkey, British police believe.

The headteacher of the school attended by three teenage girls believed to have travelled to Syria to join Islamic State has said police found no evidence that the missing students were radicalised there.

Metropolitan Police officers are in Turkey as the search continues for three missing schoolgirls believed to have fled to Syria to join Islamic State.

Relatives of three missing British schoolgirls believed to have fled to Syria to join Islamic State have pleaded for them to return home.

The family of a British woman who travelled to Syria to marry an Islamic State fighter have branded her a “disgrace” and expressed anger that she may have tried to recruit three missing schoolgirls to the militant group.

David Cameron has urged schools to recognise their role in the “fight against Islamist extremist terror” as police urgently try to trace three girls believed to have fled to Syria to join Islamic State.