Experts at King's College London say they have identified a group of around 30 British women in northern Syria, who are encouraging others to launch terrorist attacks in the UK.

The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) has studied the social media accounts of female jihadis, and has found that instead of supporting their male counterparts, many are actively helping to recruit female would-be extremists, often encouraging them to carry out atrocities in the UK

Authorities are still hunting Hayat Boumeddiene, the wife of kosher supermarket killer Amedy Coulibaly, who is thought to have fled to Syria to join up with Islamic State fighters.

She is suspected of helping plan the Paris attacks, but had left France before the Kouachi brothers – Cherif, 32, and Said, 34, opened fire on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, arriving in Istanbul on January 2

round 50 British women and girls are thought to have joined ISIS, with the majority based in the jihadist's stronghold Raqqa and aged between 16 and 24.

Among them are 16-year-old twins Salma and Zahra Halane who fled their home in Chorlton, Manchester, to follow their brother to Syria - where it is believed they have married IS fighters.

Former public schoolgirl Aqsa Mahmood, 20, from Glasgow, is known to have been in Raqqa helping to organise religious patrols.

Former public schoolgirl Aqsa Mahmood, 20, from Glasgow, is known to have been in Raqqa helping to organise religious patrols
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Former public schoolgirl Aqsa Mahmood, 20, from Glasgow, is known to have been in Raqqa helping to organise religious patrols

It has previously been thought that women have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS ranks as wives, but ICSR's findings suggest they are playing a more active role.