Missing Girl's Family 'Cannot Stop Crying'

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The father of Amira Abase, one of three British teenagers thought to have run away to Syria, has said his family "cannot stop crying" and appealed for her to return home.

Clutching a teddy bear in a Chelsea Football Club jersey, Abase Hussen, 47, said his family was "completely different now" since Amira, 15, had disappeared along with Shamima Begum, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16.

The three girls were last seen on Tuesday morning as they left their homes in East London, telling their families they would be out for the day.

They are believed to have boarded a Turkish Airlines flight at Gatwick which landed in Istanbul on Tuesday evening with the intention to cross into Syria and join terror group Islamic State.

Speaking at Scotland Yard, Mr Hussen said: "We are depressed, and it's very stressful. The message we have for Amira is to get back home. We miss you. We cannot stop crying. Please think twice. Don't go to Syria."

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Gallery: Final Pictures Of Missing London Schoolgirls

These pictures were taken from Kadiza Sultana (l) and Shamima Begum's (r) twitter accounts

Kadiza and Shamima are feared to be on their way to Syria with a third girl, 15-year-old Amira Abase

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Scotland Yard is urgently trying to trace three teenage girls who are from the same East London school

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CCTV captured images of the girls at Gatwick Airport before boarding a flight to Turkey

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CCTV captured images of the girls at Gatwick Airport before boarding a flight to Turkey. Kadiza Sultana is pictured here

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Mr Abase said Amira's younger brother and sister "cannot stop crying and they are in a difficult situation".

Amira had shown no signs that anything was amiss as she left home on Tuesday morning saying she was going to a wedding, Mr Hussen said.

"There was no sign to suspect her at all."

Later that morning she had sent her father a text saying: "Dad, the place is a little bit far. I pray my midday pray and I get back".

But she never returned and her worried family reported her missing about midnight on Tuesday.

Mr Abase said his daughter had not spoken with her family about her intentions "because she knows what the answer will be", but he did not know if she had discussions with her friends.

Also speaking yesterday, one of Shamima Begum's sisters fought back tears as she told how her family hoped that the 15-year-old had only gone to "try and talk some sense" into her friend who had headed to Syria months earlier.

Renu Begum, 27, said: "Her family love her more than anybody else in this Earth can.

"If anybody is telling her that they're going to love her more than us, they're wrong.

"Nobody else can love her more than we do because she's our baby. We just want her home."

A tweet sent from Shamima Begum's Twitter account two days earlier, asked a friend already in Syria to follow her so they could start messaging privately.

It is understood Shamima Begum had exchanged messages online with Aqsa Mahmood, a former private school pupil from Glasgow who travelled to Syria to marry a fighter.

Aamer Anwar, the lawyer representing Aqsa's family, told Sky News security authorities are not passing on intelligence which could allow families to prevent their children from travelling to Syria or Iraq.

These failings mean the UK is "exporting terror" abroad, he said.

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