The daughter of a woman missing in Nepal has told how she traced her mother’s location through a TikTok video posted hours before the devastating flash flood hit.
The catastrophic flash floods that hit Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday, thundering down valleys and sweeping away entire villages, have killed at least ۶۷۵ people, while more than ۳,۰۰۰ remain missing.
Among the missing are ۳۳ British nationals, including a ۱۳-year-old, NHS workers and a priest. A team from the UK will arrive in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, on Saturday.
Tulshi Patel’s mother, Hemangini Jitendra Patel, and her aunt, Hema Sunil Amin, set off on a pilgrimage in which they had planned to travel into Tibet, but the pair have not been contactable since the flash floods hit.
In an interview with LBC’s Matt Frei, Patel said the two women had been talking about the trip since the start of the year and the journey had been “on their bucket list”.
She said she had last spoken to her mother and aunt on Monday, had received a photo of them on Tuesday, and their last known location had come from a GPS signal from the tour group at a place called Friendship Bridge at the Nepal-China border.
Patel, a pharmacist from Milton Keynes, said: “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, I guess, that the local Nepali tour guide had made.”
Of the video, Patel said: “It was Wednesday morning, just before ۶am, Nepal time.
“They were supposed to have crossed the border on Tuesday, but I guess due to weather conditions, or whichever it was, they got delayed and unfortunately crossed over on Wednesday.”
The flood is believed to have occurred after a magnitude ۵.۲ seismic event near the border between Nepal and China on Wednesday at ۸.۳۷am local time, according to the US Geological Survey.
Patel said her mother and aunt had been in good health and had prepared well for the trip. “They’d gone on walks regularly, they were looking forward to it. This is all they wanted,” she said.
“Their positive viewpoints, health, mental health was great and they were very strong and positive about everything.
“This was something that they were both looking forward to. They’d been talking about this from the beginning of the year. It was something that was on their bucket list that they really wanted to do.”
Patel said she had messaged the two women “in the hopes that maybe we’ll see a tick to say they’ve seen it or read it” and had attempted to contact the tour guide. “We’ve messaged the tour guide in case he has a signal because he’ll have a local Sim as well.
“Every day we’re calling via WhatsApp … We’ve not given up, but, from our end, all we can do is research, but we just need kind of eyes and ears there from our side to basically get them out. Get all of them out and safe.”
Patel said the family had considered travelling to Nepal to join search efforts but had decided against this as they did not know how close they could get to the region in order to help.
Some of those missing were visiting Kailash Mansarovar, a high-altitude site in Tibet revered by Hindus and Buddhists. Neetu Goyal Tiwari, ۵۱, was on her “dream” trip to complete a pilgrimage when the flash floods hit.
The family have been desperately phoning contacts in Nepal in an attempt to find her, though they increasingly believe her to still be in China. As many of the family members are based in India, it is difficult for them to obtain visas to search for her. Her brother, Naresh Goyal, said Neetu’s husband and daughter remained in the UK for now.
“We’re not sure what the next second holds and what we should do from our end, because we’re trying to reach everyone we can,” he said. “She was a very fun-loving woman [and] really had a great heart. I really hope she comes back soon.”
Other families of those missing have travelled to the affected region from the UK. Leena Bector, ۵۳, from Slough, was among ۲۷ travellers who are unaccounted for.
Her husband, Bhupesh Bector, told the Times he was booking the next flight to Kathmandu after the Home Office had failed to confirm whether Leena was on its missing persons list.
He said: “Even if they find her today or tomorrow, I need to be there. She must be in trauma.”
