The husbands of three sisters from Bradford are said to be “distraught”over reports that the women have taken their nine children and travelled to Syria to join the Islamic State (IS).

Khadija, Sugra and Zohra Dawood, and their children aged from three to 15 had travelled to Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage, but have not made contact with their families in the UK since 8 June.

Neither the women or their children have switched on their phones or updated their social media accounts since 8 June.

A travel agent in the Saudi Arabian city of Medina said that the women bought one-way tickets to Istanbul, Turkey, on 9 June, a city from where many people have gone on to cross the border into Syria.

The fathers, two of whom are in the UK and one in Pakistan, fear that the women have travelled to Syria to join IS, according to their lawyer Balaal Khan.

Their brother is reported to already be in Syria, fighting for IS.

West Yorkshire Police say they are “extremely concerned” for the safety of the women and their children and that they continue enquiries on a “national and international level”.