Thousands of people in East Lancs have signed an online petition to ban all ISIS members from returning to the UK.

At the time of writing, the petition had amassed 275,000 signatures, with the numbers still rising.

This included more than 3,000 signatures from East Lancs residents.

On Friday evening, 703 people from Rossendale and Darwen had signed the petition, with 565 from Blackburn, 570 from Burnley, 421 from Pendle, 611 from Hyndburn and 549 from the Ribble Valley.

The petition will run until May, but already has the 100,000 signatures needed to be debated in Parliament.

Set up in November by Stephen Kent, in the three months to February it had only amassed 142,000 signatures.

But following the announcement on Thursday by 'jihadi bride' Shamima Begum, that she wanted to come home, the figures almost doubled, with the numbers rising to 250,000 by 11pm on Friday.

Begum left the UK aged 15 to join the ISIS terrorist organisation, and is now heavily pregnant.

It is believed she wants to return to the UK for the sake of her baby but does not regret her decision to join the terror group.

The petition states: "By banning all returning ISIS members and by removing their citizenship and passports it would help keep the UK safe from terrorists and their actions.

"It would also save hundreds of thousands of pounds and time of the police and security services.

"It would also send a message to others that membership of terrorist orgsnisation [sic] will not be tollerated [sic]."

A response given by the Home Office stated: "The Home Secretary has the power to remove or ‘deprive’ a British national’s citizenship and stop them from returning to the UK if they hold or are eligible to hold another nationality and if he assesses that individual’s presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.

"This may only happen if the person would not be left stateless as a result. This power has been used against those who travelled to fight overseas.

"There have already been several successful prosecutions for those who have returned from Syria."

It is thought more than 400 ISIS fighters have already come back to the UK, with more expected to try and make a return as the terrorist cell nears its end in Syria.