British police say they are liaising with Turkey after Zahera Tariq and her four children were found safe and well

A British woman who left her London home and was feared to be on her way to Syria with her four children has been detained in Turkey, counter-terrorism police have said. Zahera Tariq, 33, and her four children, aged between four and 12, from Waltham Forest in east London, were last seen a week ago leaving London City airport on their way to the Netherlands.

Turkish authorities have detained Tariq along with her four children, who are all said to be safe and well, the Metropolitan police’s counter-terrorism command said on Tuesday. British officers are liaising with the Turkish authorities and inquiries continue.

Tariq’s husband, Yasair Mahmmood, 42, was reported to be in hospital in the UK after his existing health problems were exacerbated by the shock of his family’s departure. Police said a family member, believed to be Mahmmood, raised the alarm last Wednesday after discovering that they had gone.



Commander Richard Walton, from the Met’s counter-terrorism command, 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. I would also like to thank our police counterparts in the Netherlands and Turkey, with whom we continue to have excellent working relationships.”

Police and security services believe at least 700 potential extremists have travelled to Syria, with around half thought to have returned to the UK. Assistant commissioner Mark Rowley, the country’s most senior counter-terrorism officer, last month disclosed that suspects were being arrested at a rate of more than one a day.



Rowley also revealed at least 32 children in London had been made the subject of family court orders this year over fears of radicalisation – including some described by the assistant commissioner as “almost babes in arms”.

In the first official count of females from the UK thought to have gone to Syria, police in July said that 43 women and girls were believed to have fled to the country in the past year. Among them were three sisters from Bradford, who ran away with their nine children, and women in a family of 12 from Luton who disappeared earlier this month.

School friends Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, both 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, all from Bethnal Green, east London, left for Syria in February. Some are now thought to be married to Isis extremists.