London mother and four children feared to be 'travelling to Syria'

Zahera Tariq, 33, from Walthamstow was last seen on Tuesday

CCTV captured the family at City Airport (Met Police)

A mother and her four children are feared to be en-route to Syria after disappearing from their family home in London.

Zahera Tariq and her four children were last seen at their home in Walthamstow, London, on Tuesday, according to the Metropolitan Police.

The 33-year-old and her sons - Muhammad, 12, Amaar, 11, Aadid, four and Safiyyah, nine – were reported missing on Tuesday by a relative, a Met Police spokesperson said.

Officers believe Ms Tariq, accompanied by her children, may have left for Amsterdam in the Netherlands later that day. None of the five has been seen since.

The family were caught on CCTV (Met Police)

CCTV images, picturing Ms Tariq and her sons at London City Airport prior to their flight, have been released.

"We're concerned about Zahera and her four children and we're doing all we can to work with our partners and colleagues both here and abroad to try and locate them and make sure they are all safe and well,” a Met spokesperson said.

"Whilst we do have some concerns that Zahera may be thinking of travelling to Syria, there is no current information to suggest that she's already travelled there,” they added.

Ms Tariq is believed to be travelling with her four children (Met Police)

As many as 40 women and girls have travelled to Syria from Britain in the past year, Scotland Yard confirmed recently. Most notably in July several members of the same family travelled to Syria, along with three children, after a holiday in Bangladesh.

Descriptions of the Tariq family have also been released by the police. Ms Tariq is approximately 5ft 3ins (1.6m) tall, with long black hair. Muhammad is of medium build and around 5ft tall, with medium-length black hair. His two younger sisters are described as slim with black hair.