Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Turkish authorities told police officers in London the woman and her children were safe and well, reports Daniel Sandford

A mother and her four children, believed to be travelling from London to Syria, have been detained in Turkey, police have said.

The family went missing from their home in Waltham Forest, east London, last week and were thought to have left via London City Airport, the Met said.

The mother is being held by Turkish Police. The children, aged from four to 12, were said to be safe and well.

The Met said it was liaising with Turkish authorities.

The BBC's special correspondent Lucy Manning said the 33-year-old mother was thought to be trying to join her sister and brother-in-law who travelled to Syria last year.

The brother-in-law is understood to have been a follower of the radical preacher Anjem Choudary, she added.

'Real concerns'

Richard Walton, of the Met's counter-terrorism command, thanked the public and the media for helping to find the family.

He said: "We had very real concerns that she may have been planning to travel with her children to Syria and she has now been detained with the children in Turkey."

Police officers first appealed for information about the family after the woman's husband contacted them on Wednesday to report them missing.

It was thought they had flown from London to Amsterdam last Tuesday.

Detectives later found the family had been pictured on security cameras at London City Airport before their flight.

Several cases have been reported recently in which women and children from the UK are thought to have travelled to parts of Syria, under the control of militant group the Islamic State.

More than 40 women and girls travelled to Syria from Britain in the last year, the Met Police has said.