TikTok video gives Indian-origin woman clue on mother missing after Nepal floods

The daughter of an Indian-origin woman in the UK, who has been missing since devastating flash floods struck Nepal, has traced her mother’s last known location through a TikTok video posted hours before the disaster.

The floods, which struck parts of Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday, swept through valleys and villages, leaving at least 675 people dead and more than 3,000 missing.

Among those unaccounted for are 33 British nationals, including a 13-year-old child, NHS workers and a priest. A UK team is due to arrive in Kathmandu on Saturday to assist with efforts.

Tulshi Patel’s mother, Hemangini Jitendra Patel, and her aunt, Hema Sunil Amin, were on a pilgrimage to Tibet when they lost contact with their families. The two women had been planning the journey since the beginning of the year and considered it a “bucket list” trip, Patel told LBC.

GPS AND SOCIAL MEDIA HELPED TRACING

Patel, a pharmacist from Milton Keynes, said she last spoke to the women on Monday and received a photograph of them the following day. Their tour group’s last known GPS location placed them at Friendship Bridge on the Nepal-China border.

The family then conducted its own search online and found a TikTok video posted by a local Nepali tour guide.

“We did our own deep-dive research and we found a TikTok video that verified and showed my mum and auntie and three other people from the tour at the border waiting to cross,” Patel said.

The video was recorded shortly before 6 am local time on Wednesday, hours before the floods struck. Patel said the women had been expected to cross the border on Tuesday but were delayed, apparently because of weather conditions.

The family has since repeatedly tried to contact the women and their tour guide through WhatsApp and other channels.

“We’ve not given up,” Patel said, adding that the family needed people on the ground to help locate and rescue those still missing.

She said the family had considered travelling to Nepal but decided against it because they were unsure how close they could get to the affected region.

SEVERAL OTHER BRITISH NATIONALS MISSING TOO

Several people missing in the disaster had travelled to Tibet for the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. Among them is 51-year-old Neetu Goyal Tiwari, who was on what her family described as her “dream” pilgrimage.

Her family has been contacting people in Nepal in an effort to establish her whereabouts but increasingly believes she may still be in China. Obtaining visas to travel to the region has also proved difficult for relatives based in India.

Neetu’s brother, Naresh Goyal, said the family remained desperate for information. “We’re not sure what the next second holds,” he said, describing her as “fun-loving” and someone with “a great heart”.

Other families have already travelled from the UK to the affected region. Leena Bector, 53, from Slough, is among 33 travellers who remain unaccounted for.

Her husband, Bhupesh Bector, told the Times that he was booking the next available flight to Kathmandu after the Home Office could not confirm whether Leena was on its missing-persons list.

“Even if they find her today or tomorrow, I need to be there,” he said. “She must be in trauma.”