UK PM Cameron urges action on girls who ran away to Syria

Airlines and internet companies need to do more to prevent radicalised British teenagers travelling to the Middle East to join the Islamic State group, Prime Minister David Cameron says.

Mr Cameron told MPs in parliament he was "horrified" by the case of three London girls believed to have travelled to Syria to join the radical group after being indoctrinated by extremists online.

He announced that Home Secretary Theresa May and Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin will be talking with airlines on new "proportionate" arrangements to ensure that children who are at risk are properly identified and questioned.

Border police should be alerted of any concerns so they can stop individuals from travelling, he said.

Mr Cameron said internet companies must also live up to their "social responsibility" by taking down extremist content and improving cooperation with the authorities over contacts between extremists and young people vulnerable to radicalisation.

Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-old Amira Abase are currently being hunted in Turkey after they boarded a flight from Gatwick Airport to Istanbul last Tuesday.

The headteacher of the girls' school said he was "shocked and saddened" by the girls' disappearance, but said that police had not found evidence that they were radicalised at the school.

Mark Keary, principal of Bethnal Green Academy, east London, said police spoke to the girls after another student disappeared in December and indicated at the time that there was no evidence that they were at risk of being radicalised or absconding.

He also said that access social media at the school is "strictly regulated". A tweet sent from a Twitter account under Shamima's name was sent to Aqsa Mahmood, who left Glasgow for Syria to be a "jihadi bride" in 2013.