The hunt is on for the teenage daughter of a well-respected King's Lynn surgeon who was one of nine British medical students that fled to hospitals controlled by Islamic State in Syria to help wounded people.
North-West Norfolk MP Henry Bellingham has requested urgent help from the Foreign Office for the family of Lena Mamoun Abdel-Gadir, a 19-year-old student who had been studying at Khartoum medical school in Sudan.
Mr Bellingham said he had previously met Mr Mamoun Abdel-Gadir, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and said he was 'as far away from being a radical as anyone you could meet'.
He added: 'I am sure the whole community is in shock about what has happened. I know this has come as a dreadful blow to the rest of the family as it is obvious they only wanted the best for their daughter when they sent her to the school.
'The last thing they had expected was for her to be sent to Syria to support IS by working as a medical volunteer.
'I have asked the Foreign Secretary to provide the family all the possible consular support.'
The Observer newspaper reported that Miss Abdel-Gadir informed her family of the trip via the messenger Whatsapp.
The former Wisbech Grammar School pupil reportedly told her relatives: 'Don't worry about us, we've reached Turkey and are on our way to volunteer helping wounded Syrian people.'
She is also believed to have sent a smiling selfie to her sister before crossing the border.
Mr Mamoun Abdel-Gadir is understood to have travelled with other parents to Turkey this week in a bid to get the students back.
A woman at the family home in East Winch Road, Leziate, near King's Lynn, yesterday said they had no comment to make.
The news has come as a shock to people in the village and Tony Crane, vice-chairman of Leziate parish council, said: 'It's surprising that this could involve someone living locally.'
A spokesman for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Foundation Trust said: 'This is a personal matter and the trust will be making no further comment.'
The students, five men and four women, all in their late teens and early 20s, reportedly flew to Istanbul from Sudan earlier this month. They went to the region 'to help, not to fight', a Turkish politician helping the families told The Observer. Mehmet Ali Ediboglu said the students were born and raised in England, but had been studying medicine in Sudan.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: 'We are providing consular assistance to families of British nationals who are believed to be missing after travelling to Turkey. We are also working closely with the Turkish police to try to establish their whereabouts.'
•Do you know the family? Email david.bale2@archant.co.uk
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