A 15-year-old, Yusra Hussien, was stopped from joining the ever-growing band of British girls fleeing to Syria to join ISIS fighters after police stopped her plane on the runway seconds before it was about to take off. The young girl had secretly saved up to buy a ticket from London to Istanbul and planned to continue her journey through Turkey and over the border into Syria.
Her family, who had no idea she had extremist views, reported her missing and Scotland Yard tracked her down to a jet about to leave Britain. After rushing to Heathrow officers realised the girl’s plane was already taxiing along the runway, so the pilot was ordered to stop and the girl was taken home.
The case is the latest in a series of cases where British teenage girls have decided to flee for Syria – often to become jihadi brides. A police source involved in the Heathrow raid on December said police ignored costs and disruption to stop the plane.
‘The plane was taxiing down the runway but we managed to turn it round. This was a big decision to take because of all the disruption it caused. But we had to stop her going. It has probably saved her life,’ he told the Evening Standard.
It appears it was treated as a missing person’s inquiry and she was not arrested.
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