One of two Austrian girls who fled to Syria to fight with IS has been killed

A TEENAGE girl who fled Austria to fight on the side of Islamic State militants in Syria may have been killed, police say.

Samra Kesinovic and Sabina Selimovic fled to Austria after online chats and visits to a local mosque[CEN ]

Samra Kesinovic was just 16 and her friend Sabina Selimovic 15 when they vanished from their homes in Austrian capital Vienna and then posted images of themselves branding Kalashnikov rifles, and in some cases surrounded by armed men.

But now police say one of the two Jihadi girls may be dead. 

Konrad Kogler, Director General for Public Security, refused to confirm which girl was rumoured to have died or where the rumours came from, but said: "The parents of the girl concerned have been informed that there is a risk their daughter is now dead." 

This comes just two days after IS posted shocking footage online showing the brutal beheading of British aid worker, David Haines. 

Police feared the jihadi girls were inspiring other young teenagers to join the terror group [CEN]

The parents of the girl concerned have been informed that there is a risk their daughter is now dead

Konrad Kogler

The executioner- thought to be Jihadi John- also threatened to kill a second British hostage, Alan Henning, 47, from Manchester. This has since prompted an international push to combat IS militants. 

Last week it was feared the pair had inspired another pair of teenager girls, also from Austria, to flee and take up the call for holy war. 

Interpol has been searching for the girls since April. Both Samra and Sabina's parents were from Bosnia but moved to make new lives for themselves in Austria. 

After meeting people on the internet and attending a nearby mosque, the girls were persuaded to leave the country. 

Police managed to track them to the Turkish border and believe that they went by car into the war zone where they were married to extremists and then sent out to fight.  They then regularly posted status updates on social media from Syria.

It is believed that girls are being used increasingly in fighting because of the belief that anybody killed by a girl will never find their way to heaven.

As many as 130 people from Austria are now believed to be fighting as jihadists abroad. More than half of Austrian's jihadists originally come from the Caucasus region and have a valid residence permit in Austria.

Sixty British woman, around the ages of 18 and 24, are said to be among the hundreds of people from the UK that have fled to Syria to join the terror state.

The woman jihadists include Aqsa Mahmood, 20, from Glasgow, two teenagers from Surrey, a former musician and mother-of-two, Sally Jones, 45 and 16-year-old twin sisters from Manchester.