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CCTV Appears To Show Missing London Girls

CCTV footage has emerged appearing to show the three teenage girls who are thought to have joined Islamic State in Syria.

Three girls - believed to be Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-old Amira Abase - are seen at a bus station in Istanbul in the footage, which was shown on the Turkish television channel A Haber.

The girls are seen wrapped up in heavy winter jackets, two with hoods pulled up, and carrying packed sports bags and holdalls.

The footage was recorded in the early hours of 18 February, less than 24 hours after the trio left their homes in east London, telling their families they would be out for the day.

They then boarded a flight to Turkey from Gatwick, and are since believed to have crossed the Turkish border into Syria.

The girls' relatives have made emotional pleas for them to come home , amid concerns they may have been recruited by jihadists who communicated with them online.

As many as 500 Britons are thought to have made their way to Syria or Iraq to join Islamist groups.

People seeking to join IS are using black-market Syrian passports to enter through Turkish border checkpoints, according to smugglers in the area.

Last week, Prime Minister David Cameron indicated security arrangements at the border and on planes could be tightened to prevent young people travelling to join the extremist group.

He has asked Home Secretary Theresa May and Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin to examine "all the protocols we have in place".

The girls were students at Bethnal Green Academy in east London, and earlier this week the school said it had "no evidence" they were at risk from radicalisation, despite another pupil disappearing in December.

Turkey's ambassador and the boss of the country's national airline have been summoned before MPs in Westminster to answer questions about the case.