Britain is now debating how to stop teenage girls joining the Islamic State group in Syria after three high-achieving youngsters became the latest to run away from home.
School friends Kadiza Sultana, age 17, and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase left their east London homes last Tuesday and flew to Istanbul, raising concerns that they would then travel on to Syria to join the IS jihadists.
All three were spoken to in December by police investigating the disappearance of a friend who went to Syria, but Scotland Yard insists nothing indicated they would follow suit.
Amira's father, Abase Hussen, 47, said nothing in his daughter's behaviour indicated anything was wrong when she told him she was leaving to attend a wedding.
"She said 'Daddy, I'm in no hurry'," Hussen Abase told journalists at police headquarters. "There was no sign to suspect her at all."
In fact, she had travelled to Gatwick Airport to take a flight to Turkey, despite never showing signs of an interest in extremism to her family.