The British teenager killed in Syria after joining ISIS was too scared to run away following the public execution of a fellow jihadi bride who was caught fleeing.

It emerged yesterday that Kadiza Sultana, who was one of three schoolgirls from east London who fled to Syria last year, has been killed, reportedly in an airstrike.

The 17-year-old is thought to be the first British female member of ISIS to die since the start of the so-called 'caliphate'.

A lawyer for her family has now revealed that she was planning to escape the terror group, but was put off when another foreign bride was publicly killed.

British schoolgirl Kadiza Sultana (left) who fled her home in Bethnal Green to join the terror group in Syria,has been been killed. She was deterred from fleeing after Austrian jihadi bride Samra Kesinovic (right) was publicly beaten to death

Kadiza, circled, was one of three east London schoolgirls who fled to Syria last year

Austrian Samra Kesinovic, 17, was killed in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa last year after travelling to Syria the previous year.

Kadiza's family solicitor Tasnime Akunjee told the BBC's Newsnight: 'If ISIS were to detect and capture you, their punishment was quite brutal for trying to leave.

'In the week she was thinking about these issues, a young Austrian girl who had been caught trying to leave ISIS territory, was by all reports beaten to death publicly.

'I think Kadiza took that as a bad omen and decided not to take the risk.’

Asked why she wanted to leave, he added: ‘I think she found out quite quickly that the propaganda doesn’t match up with the reality. She had made some enquiries and plans off own volition but those came to nought in the end.’

Kadiza was just 16 when she reached Syria in February 2015 after flying from Gatwick to Turkey with her 15-year-old friends Shamima Begum and Amira Abase.

The pupils from Bethnal Green Academy in East London, who were radicalised by ISIS propaganda on the internet, initially embraced their new life and agreed to marry jihadi fighters.

But Kadiza became disillusioned with life in the terror group's de-facto capital of Raqqa after her new husband died and told her family she was desperate to get back to Britain.

Kadiza's sister Halima is pictured speaking to her on the phone shortly before her death

During strained phone calls to the family home, she told of fears she had 'zero' chance of escaping because it was impossible to cross the border.

Her sister Halima Khanom, 26, last night confirmed that Kadiza had been killed by a Russian airstrike in May. She told ITV News: 'We were expecting this in a way. But at least we know she is in a better place. She is gone.'

In a phone call before her death, Kadiza told her sister: 'I don't have a good feeling. I feel scared.' Asked why she felt scared, she replied: 'You know if something goes wrong, that's it. I will never be with you.

'You know the borders are closed right now, so how am I going to get out? I am not going to go through [Kurdish] territory to come out. I am never going to do that, ever.'

Her sister, a projects coordinator at the Imperial War Museum, then asked her how confident she felt about getting out, to which Kadiza replied: 'Zero'.

The girls flew to Tukrey and caught a bus to the border before being smuggled into Syria

Kadiza's friends Amira Base (left) and Shamima Begum (right) are thought to be alive

BRITISH TEENAGERS NOW BEING TOLD TO CARRY OUT TERROR ATTACKS IN THE UK British youngsters being groomed by online extremists are no longer being encouraged to travel to Syria, an expert has warned. Instead, ISIS agents are telling their easily-influenced followers to carry out terror attacks in the UK. Sara Khan, the director of Inspire, a counter extremism and women's rights organisation, told the BBC's Today programme: ‘If you look at what Daesh (ISIS) propaganda is saying now, they’re not actually encouraging travel now. 'They are actively saying commit atrocities in the countries that you're living in, so the message has changed and we know that there have been several attempts of young British Muslims attempting to commit acts of terror in London in the UK, so the message has changed, and we're seeing that again in Paris, France and other places as well. ‘That propaganda is reaching thousands of young Muslims and I think we underestimate the extent, the reach, the influence of Daesh propaganda.' Advertisement

Kadiza then asks to speak to their mother, but the call ends before she gets the chance.

Speaking after the phone call, Halima said: 'She sounds very terrified. She did get very emotional as well. I feel really helpless. What can I do? It's really hard.

'I don't think she's ever made a choice by herself. That was the first one and a very big one. I just look forward to the next call and that's what keeps me going.

'Things have changed. The way she used to communicate with me, the way she used to talk about things has totally changed. She's scared of being there.'

This was one of the final calls Kadiza made before being killed. Her family then received a phone call from someone in Syria telling them she had died.

The three girls, who were all straight A students, were pictured by airport cameras before getting into a car in Turkey to cross the border into Syria. They were unprepared for the reality of life in a war zone and had little experience of living permanently veiled and under the strict regime.

Kadiza married an American IS fighter of Somali origin, who was killed while fighting the Russian-backed Syrian forces.

Several months after arriving, the three girls were trained for 'special missions' - prompting fears they were to be used as suicide bombers.

All three of the schoolgirls had attended Bethnal Green Academy in Tower Hamlets

The journey taken by the schoolgirls: They flew from London to Istanbul and then were smuggled into Syria by bus

Kadiza's death has sparked fears over the safety of her two friends and another pupil from Bethnal Green Academy. Sharmeena Begum, who is not related to Shamima but was friends with the girls, fled to Syria two months before her fellow pupils joined her.

The 17-year-old is also believed to have married an IS fighter and her father Mohammad Uddin said he was shocked and deeply worried by the news.

He said: 'I have had no contact with her. I last heard from her two or three months ago when she texted me to say she was okay.

'Obviously, the news about Kadiza makes me very worried. If this has happened to one of the other girls, it could have happened to my daughter as well. I'm shocked.'

This is believed to be a picture of Samra Kesinovic after she travelled to Syria. She was reported used as a sex slave before trying to flee and being publicly killed

The Bethnal Green schoolgirls are among more than 800 Britons who have left the UK to join IS.

It is thought that at least 250 have since returned. Some have faced prosecution on arrival in Britain, with others allowed to re-enter society under the watch of security services.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan Howe told MPs last year that it was unlikely the girls would be prosecuted if they returned to Britain unless there was evidence they had committed specific crimes.