Two young girls' alarming tale of having fled their country to join the Islamic State in Syria is now allegedly encouraging other teenagers in Austria to attempt the same, UK MailOnline reported.
Earlier this year, 16-year-old Samra Kesinovic and 15-year-old Sabina Selimovic went missing from their homes in the Austrian capital Vienna. Soon after, they posted disturbing images of themselves dressed in traditional Muslim clothing while surrounded by armed men, branding Kalashnikov rifles.
The pair's disappearance sparked immediate panic, with Austrian media dubbing the two girls as the public face for the call to jihad. Despite being hunted by Interpol, their whereabouts have remained a mystery.
Now, the Austrian Interior Ministry has confirmed catching two other teenage girls from Vienna who were supposedly inspired by the former pair to flee the country and take up the call for holy war by joining the ranks of ISIS. A third girl was planning to join them, but was stopped by her mother.
The third girl, who is 17 years old, was planning to join them in Graz, the second-largest city in Austria. However, her mother became suspicious of the large suitcase she was taking and stopped her from going, RT reported.
Then, the elder girl's mother decided to contact the local police on Saturday, helping them track down her two friends.
However, little information has been provided about the two suspects, a 16-year-old and 14-year-old, apart from the fact that their parents are from Iraq, but have been living in Austria for about 20 years. It wasn't clear if the two girls had any sort of contact with the former pair.
The teens,one from a Muslim family and other a convert, told police that they didn't like Austria, reported Kronen Zeitung newspaper. They were planning to go to Syria or Iraq, said AP.
Police are now hoping to find out how the two girls became radicalized, and whether anybody had helped them plan their trip to Syria which was apparently set to take place via Turkey - following the same route as the other two girls.
Meanwhile, as many as 130 people from Austria are now believed to be fighting as jihadists abroad, with more than half of them originally belonging to the Caucasus region and having a valid residence permit in Austria.
Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Alexander Marakovits said they were noticing an increasing problem with youngsters wanting to leave the country for the same cause, according to UK MailOnline.
"If we can catch them before they leave, we have the chance to work with their parents and other institutions to bring the youngsters out of the sphere of influence that prompted them to act in this way the first place," he said.
"Once they have left the country, even if they then changed their minds, it is then almost impossible to get them back."
"They are victims who have fallen in with the wrong circle of friends," he said, adding that the teens were "lured [to Syria] with false promises."
Last month, a poll reported that one in six French citizens, almost a sixth of the country's population (16 percent), sympathize and have a favorable disposition towards the Islamist militant group ISIS.
A breakdown of the age groups participating in the poll revealed that the younger the respondent, the more likely they were to have a favorable view of IS, with the highest opinion of the group coming in from the age group of 18-24, according to International Business Times.
