Missing UK schoolgirls caught on CCTV
New pictures have emerged showing three ISIL-bound UK teenagers at a bus station in Istanbul.
Shamima Begum and Amira Abbas, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16 are the schoolgirls believed to be en route to join the ISIL in Syria after flying from London to Istanbul on 17 February.
The CCTV footage shows the three teenagers waiting at the Bayrampasa bus station later that same day and the following morning, the state-run BBC said.
The images were taken between 18:27 GMT on 17 February and 11:22 GMT on 18 February.
The girls reportedly waited at the bus station for around 18 hours before taking a bus to Urfa near the border with Syria.
The three friends all went to the Bethnal Green Academy school and are described as "straight-A students" and are good friends with another 15-year-old girl who fled to Syria in December.
A group of waiting ISIL men "immediately picked them up with cars", the report quoted a “people smuggler” as saying.
They had flown from London's Gatwick Airport to Turkey after telling their parents they were going out for the day.
The girls' families have made a number of emotional appeals for them to return home.
Sixty British women including nearly 20 teenage girls have traveled to Syria to join the ISIL in the past year after being "carefully prepared" for travel to ensure they do not stand out, one of Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officers has revealed, according to the Telegraph.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball, the Metropolitan Police's National Coordinator Counter Terrorism coordinator, said that the number of British girls travelling is a "growing problem" as she urged the authorities to be "vigilant".
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