Wembley man feared to have joined IS in Syria

 
A man from west London is feared to have left Britain to join Islamic State

A man from west London is feared to have left Britain to join Islamic State after lying to his parents that he was going on an IT course.

The 22-year-old disappeared from his home in Wembley on Monday, and is feared to have already reached Syria.

He left home at about 6am, saying he was going to attend a course in east London. His distraught family, who do not want to be identified, raised the alarm when he failed to return home. Authorities believe he travelled to Paris then to Turkey, where his parents think he aimed to try to cross into Syria.

They said they were already concerned after seeing him spend more and more time alone on the internet.

It is not clear if they raised the issue with the police. But their MP Barry Gardiner criticised the UK authorities for failing to respond quickly enough.

The Brent North MP said: “The family believe he has gone to Syria to join in the conflict against the Assad regime. They said he was taking his religion much more seriously, and had concerns that he was spending rather too much time on the internet. When it became clear he had lied about where he was going on Monday, they came to the conclusion that this [fleeing abroad] is what he had done.”

It is not clear which militant group the man may be intending to fight with, but the authorities fear it is IS.

Mr Gardiner said the family was in “great distress”. He claimed that police, after being notified at 11pm on Monday, took 24 hours to do little more than take the man’s computer for examination.

A series of ministers had told him it would be “inappropriate” for them to intervene, he added. He called for a single system that would enable MPs to spark a “global response”, notifying foreign embassies and governments that someone has gone missing.

A Met spokesman said the force was investigating the disappearance of a man from Wembley, adding: “The 22-year-old was reported missing on Tuesday.” He was not known to police as an extremist.

Officials say they reacted quickly and after examining his laptop traced his movements, discovering he had taken a flight to Paris then travelled to Istanbul.

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