VIDEO: Former Islamic school headteacher speaks after teenagers believed to have fled the country to Syria

Hassan Munshi and Talha Asmal, both 17, boarded a flight to popular tourist resort Dalaman in Turkey last week and are now thought to have crossed the boarder into Syria.

Now the former headteacher of an Islamic school in Savile Town has called for more to be done to stop youngsters from becoming radicalised.

Farook Yunus, who runs the Kumon Y’all youth group, says police, local councils and communities “failed” Hassan Munshi and Talha Asmal.

He says people must make youngsters feel safe to come forward if they are at risk of being groomed or radicalised.

Mr Yunus said: “Blame goes to everyone, not just the community, but the council, police and everybody.

“We have failed these two lads. We could have stopped this sort of thing happening so the families didn’t have to go through this suffering.

“It’s a concern that others might follow and we now need to all work together to create a better community for so that things like this don’t happen.”

“We need to engage more with youngsters and give them safe spaces so they are able to talk to us if they have come across things on the internet and tackle the issues.”

Mr Yunus left his headteacher role at Zakiraya Madrasah in 2007 and started the Kumon Y’all youth group which has picked up a number of awards for volunteer work.

He said: “We have won awards but what have we really been doing? Organising activities and looking after people in the community. We are just doing things that societies should be doing.

“The whole point of the group was just to help and get kids to do something.

“People are going to look at it and say this happened in Savile Town but they have to look at the broader picture because a lot of good work has happened here.”