On Tuesday, February 17, three female high school students were seen travelling to Turkey in what officials suspect is an attempt to cross the border into Syria and join the ISIS organization. Dubbed “jihadi brides”, these three young girls, ages 15 and 16, would be only three out of fifty British women who have already travelled to Syria via Turkey for the same purpose.

The three teenagers were last seen on Tuesday morning by their parents, when they all told the lie that they were “going out for the day”. The two 16 year olds are Kadiza Sultana and Shamima Begum, while the 15 year old’s parents have requested that her name not be released. Shamima is suspected to be travelling under her 17 year old sister’s name, Aklima Begum. The three girls are all friends with a fourth, all attending the same school, who already travelled to Syria in December.

An authority figure at Bethnal Green Academy where the four girls attended school together, Abdul Samid, denounces any accusation that his school system had anything to do with the girls’ decision to leave the country. “I’m 100% confident – with the head and the senior leadership team and the whole school – that we’ve done everything to put in measures that safeguard all the children that attend the school,” he said, adding, “I still don’t believe that they are going anywhere other than a holiday – because this is how they were dressed and this is how they looked and this is how they packed.”

Metropolitan Police Commander Richard Walton, however, is not convinced and believes the girls are travelling to Syria where he says they will be in “grave danger.” Police hope the girls are still in Turkey and that they hear their friends’ and families’ concerns for their safety and return home.