UK police: Missing teenagers crossed into Syria

The three missing UK teenagers believed to be heading to join Islamic State militants are thought to have crossed into Syria, UK police said late on Tuesday.

In a statement, London’s Metropolitan Police said they, “now have reason to believe that [the girls] are no longer in Turkey,” but did not provide further details, CNN reported.

The London schoolgirls were smuggled from Turkey into Syria, where sources have suggested that the girls entered Syria near the Kilis border crossing.

Bethnal Green Academy pupils Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, both 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, travelled to Istanbul on 17 February.

They flew from Gatwick to Turkey after telling their parents they were going out for the day.

Sources inside Syria suggest three girls crossed the border with the help of people smugglers, the BBC reported. 

The news comes after the girls' families made a number of emotional appeals for them to return.

Earlier, Scotland Yard denied it had taken three days to inform officials in Turkey about the schoolgirls travelling to Syria.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said officials would have taken "necessary measures" had they known earlier.

Arinc told reporters earlier in the day it was “condemnable and shameful” that British authorities allowed the girls to leave for Turkey. “The search efforts are ongoing. If we can find them, great,” he said. “If not, then it is the British authorities who are responsible, not Turkey.”

But the Met has said it began working with Turkish authorities a day after the girls went missing.

It was "not clear what - if anything - British or Turkish authorities are now able to do,” said BBC correspondent James Reynolds.

He said the fear was that once inside Syria, the missing schoolgirls would be "out of reach".