Syria crisis: Fears grow for three UK schoolgirls

Police released CCTV footage of the three girls at Gatwick Airport

Fears are growing for the safety of three east London schoolgirls who police believe are trying to cross the Turkish-Syrian border to join Islamic State (IS) extremists.

Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16 and their unnamed 15-year-old friend flew from Gatwick to Turkey on Tuesday.

Police have issued an urgent appeal for help in finding them, suggesting they are "extremely vulnerable".

The trio are friends with a fourth girl who travelled to Syria in December.

Muslim leaders have said they are "extremely concerned" for the girls, who attend attend Bethnal Green Academy.

'Serious ramifications'

Worshippers at the East London Mosque were asked during Friday night prayers to come forward if they had any information to help the girls return home safely.

Mosque spokesman Salman Farsi said the trio, who have been described as "straight-A students", had been manipulated.

He said: "They have 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.

"I do not know what was told to them but if they do go to Syria, it is a war zone and there are serious ramifications for going in to a war zone."

Mussurut Zia, general secretary of the Muslim Women's Network, said the missing girls would not know what lay in store in Syria.

She told BBC Breakfast: "I don't think for one instant that these people, Isis [Islamic State] and their likes, are going to treat these girls in the right way.

"They won't have rights, they won't be equal to their male counterparts and I don't think that they know this at the moment and they're going to be in for a real shock."

She called for more training for airport staff to ask questions of those flying to border countries like Turkey and raised the possibility of parental consent to be given when teenagers are travelling abroad alone.