Scotland Yard has admitted that they could have handled better the case of the three runaway schoolgirls, believed to have joined Islamic State extremists in Syria, after the teenage girls' families criticised the police for not passing on vital information to them.
The girls' families say the Metropolitan Police did not tell them that a friend of the girls was already in Syria.
The families said they might have been able to intervene if they had known one of the girls' friends was already in Syria and the police had spoken to the trio about it.
Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, both 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16 -- who left their London homes last month - were given a letter by the police for their parents, but the girls never passed on the letters to their families.
A spokesperson for the Met Police said yesterday: "We now understand that these letters were not passed on in every case. With the benefit of hindsight, we acknowledge that the letters could have been delivered direct to the parents."
After the trio's friend - a student at Bethnal Green Academy - had gone missing in December, the girls were among seven spoken to by police at the school as potential witnesses.
However, she did not tell them that the girl was believed to be in Syria - as the Met initially indicated, before issuing a clarification.
Kadiza's cousin, Fahmida Aziz, said: "I think it's absolutely crazy for an authority like a school or the police
not to inform the parents."
The three girls, students at the Bethnal Green Academy school, are believed to have joined Islamic State in Syria last month, having initially flown to Turkey from London on February 17.
5.5 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Syria Airstrike On Vehicle Kills 5 Pro-Iran Fighters In Syria: Report US Confirms Sharing Intel To Prevent Attack At Taylor Swift's Vienna Concert Who Is Jasveen Sangha, "Ketamine Queen" Charged With Matthew Perry's Death "Don't Expect Anything From Me": Kolkata Hospital's New Principal Loses Cool Nurse Raped, Killed On Way Home, Body Found 9 Days Later In UP CSAB 2024 Supernumerary Round Counselling Registration Begins Today Telangana Women's Commission Orders Probe Into KTR's Remarks What Is The Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid's Origin? Scientists Have An Answer Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.