British schoolgirl, 15, thought to have fled UK to join ISIS was A-grade student who wanted to become a dentist

Police fear a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Bristol who dreamt of becoming a dentist has run away from home to fight with Syrian jihadis.

Yusra Hussien was reported missing by her parents last Wednesday after she left the family home in the Easton area of the city for school in the morning, but wasn't there when her father went to pick her up in the afternoon.

Officers, who fear the A-grade student may have been radicalised, suspect she is on her way to Syria via Turkey in the hope of fighting with Islamic extremists.

Today her devastated parents said they had 'no idea' where she was, and begged Yusra: 'Please come back - we just want you to be safe.' 

Yusra Hussien, 15, left her home in Bristol, above, last Wednesday, and is now feared to be heading for Syria

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Authorities fear the Bristol schoolgirl may be heading to fight with ISIS in Syria, above, after being radicalised

Yusra's Somalian parents Safiya, a primary school dinner lady, and Mohammed, a youth worker, were said to be 'really confused' by a relative comforting them at their terraced home in Easton this morning.

They released a statement through their local councillor, Hibaq Jama, saying: 'Please come back, we miss you very much.

'You're not in any trouble, we just want you to be safe.  Come home as soon as possible'.

Ms Jama, who said Yusra's parents were 'absolutely devastated, they are distraught'. added: 'It is really important to understand that at the heart of it is a grieving mother and a grieving father who, as yet, have no idea where their 15-year-old daughter is.'

 

She added: 'What we know about her is that she is an incredibly bright, incredibly articulate, popular, gifted young lady who was admired by, and very much looked up to, by her peers.

'She was doing very well in school, she is in year 11 and has started that final year of her education.

'She was very aspirational, wanting to go on and become a dentist, so it has come as a complete shock to the parents.' 

Yusra was last seen by her parents last Wednesday when she left their home in Easton, supposedly to attend her school, The City Academy.

However she is believed to have travelled to London where she met another 17-year-old girl, from Lambeth, south London, before the pair boarded a plane from Heathrow Airport to Istanbul. 

Today Bristol community radio station Ujima reported that Yusra travelled to Heathrow by bus.  

Theresa May urges young people not to travel to Syria (related)

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Family spokesman Hibaq Jama said Yusra's parents were 'devastated - they have no idea where she is'

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Warning: Haras Rafiq, outreach officer for the counter-extremism think tank the Quilliam Foundation, warned the girl may become a jihadi bride. He told Good Morning Britain she could have a 'romantic notion'

A spokesman for Scotland Yard confirmed that a 17-year-old girl from Lambeth, south London, was missing from her home since last Wednesday night, and said they believed she had met the missing girl from Bristol and flown to Istanbul with her.

Louisa Rolfe, assistant chief constable of Avon and Somerset Police, said of Yusra: 'Since she was reported missing by her parents, we've carried out extensive work to trace her footsteps from the time she left home to her arrival in Istanbul, Turkey.'

She added: 'There are indications she may have been radicalised but at the moment our priority is to find her before she crosses the border to Syria and make sure she is safe.

'We must all be vigilant and ready to spot the signs of radicalisation. 

There is no anger from anyone - everyone is just desperately worried about her safety because she's just a child. It would be different if she'd gone over as an adult but she's a 15-year-old child, a schoolgirl

'Often, young Muslims who go to Syria can be naive and don't recognise that they are being sucked into joining extremist groups.

'This is not about criminalising these young people, it's about preventing tragedies.'

Yusra's schoolfriends described her as 'very religious' and 'very intelligent'.

One 15-year-old girl who met Yusra at a local mosque said: 'She worked very hard and wanted to do well in school.'

Another said: 'She was very smart. She was always getting As and A*s - that is the kind of student she was, while another said no-one had noticed any signs of her becoming radicalised.

One friend said: 'She's a really nice girl.  I think the police asked one of her friends to text her to ask where she is.' 

While Yusra's family is Somalian in origin, she and her siblings are understood to have been born in Britain and are British citizens. 

A neighbour said Yusra's mother is a dinner lady at Millpond Primary School and added: 'She is very nice - they are a very hard-working familly and get on with everyone.'

Neighbour Gloria Maloney, 60, said: 'A few days ago I came out of my house and [Mrs Hussien] had just come out of her house and I could see that she had a sadness on her face.

'I said "Are you alright?" and she would always answer me with a smile but she just did this [put her hand up]. I was thinking "What's happened to her?' I didn't know.'

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Family home: A neighbour said the Hussiens were 'a very nice family - the father is always there for his kids'

She said Yusra had three brothers and a baby sister, and added: 'It's a very nice family. The husband is always there for his kids - he is always taking them to the shops.'

Mrs Maloney, who has lived on the street for 40 years, said as soon as she heard the news she went round to comfort the Hussiens.

'I gave the dad a hug,' she said. 'He said that he was still worried. He didn't speak much. I told him I would pray for her. The wife was crying. The family was in shock.'

Ms Jama said Bristol's Somali community was now concerned that other children might be tempted to follow suit.

She said: 'This has also come as a shock to the community who are now understandably asking questions about the fact that if she, as a 15-year-old girl from this community - very articulate, very well accomplished - has disappeared then there are understandably concerns for others as well.'

Some 500 Brits are believed to have joined extremists in Iraq and Syria, where the militant group Isis has swept through huge regions killing thousands of people.

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Radicalised: Twins Zahra (left) and Salma (right) Halane, 16, ran away to Syria from their home in Manchester

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Young Britons joining the extremists have also included Reyaad Khan (left), a former star pupil from Cardiff

Today Haras Rafiq, an outreach officer for the counter-extremism think tank the Quilliam Foundation, warned the girl may have gone to become a jihadi bride.

He told Good Morning Britain: 'We suspect what's happened is that she met up with somebody here in London, she travelled from Bristol to London, so she already had this romantic notion.

'She already probably believes that she's going to go and get married so one of two things will happen.

It's more than likely that she will actually go and become a jihadi bride. She at the age of 15 will marry somebody who she considers to be a holy warrior

'Either she will have a role to play in the so-called Islamic State. In this case she's not a professional - she's not a doctor, she's not an engineer etc.

'It's more than likely that she will actually go and become a jihadi bride. She at the age of 15 will marry somebody who she considers to be a holy warrior and that's how she will play a part in the jihad.'

Those leaving to fight have also included schoolgirls such as 16-year-old twins Zahra and Salma Halane.

The pair were described as star pupils with 28 GCSEs between them and were planning to become doctors before they left their home in Chorlton, Greater Manchester, in June.

They are since believed to have joined fighters in Syria and may have become jihadi brides.

Counter-terrorism investigators say young women and girls make up around 10 per cent of all westerners leaving their homes to join the fight in the Middle East, according to the Guardian. 

Experts say many simply want to become 'jihadi brides', or have jihadist children, who they hope will continue to spread the extremist message.

Academics at King's College London estimate some 50 British girls and women - mainly aged between 16 and 24 - have joined ISIS, many travelling to the group's de facto capital in Syria, Raqqa. 

Mother on 'brainwashed' jihadi son's death in Syria

Many are university graduates and several have left behind close-knit families.

British women are reportedly being given major roles within al-Khanssaa - a female-only militia set up by ISIS in Raqqa - because Islamic State chiefs see them as the most committed of the foreign female jihadis.  

Other Brits leaving for the Middle East have included the 'executioner' known as Jihadi John, who spoke with a British accent in the beheading videos of two U.S. journalists and the British aid worker Alan Henning.

Home Secretary Theresa May has vowed to crack down on Brits fighting abroad with new measures, including stripping dual nationals of their British citizenship and prosecuting those who return. DAILYMAIL.CO.UK