Missing sisters in video posted before Nepal flood
The family of Hema Sunil Amin and Jitendra Patel say the video may have been taken by a tour guide.
Tulshi Patel, a woman desperately seeking information about two missing family members, reported seeing them in a TikTok video uploaded just hours before a flash flood struck Nepal. Her mother, Jitendra Patel, and aunt, Hema Sunil Amin, are now among thousands unaccounted for after the flood.
The two sisters, from Milton Keynes, were on a pilgrimage with plans to travel into Tibet, a journey Tulshi Patel described as being on their "bucket list."
"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 Nepalese tour guide had made," Tulshi Patel informed radio station LBC.
She last communicated with them on Monday and received a photo on Tuesday. Their last known whereabouts were pinpointed by a GPS signal from their tour group at a location called Friendship Bridge.
Regarding the TikTok video, Tulshi Patel stated, "It was Wednesday morning, just before 06:00, Nepal time." She added, "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."
CCTV footage captured individuals attempting to flee from mud and water in Gyirong, Tibet, during the event.
The flood is believed to have been triggered by a magnitude 5.2 seismic event near the Nepal-China border on Wednesday at 08:37 local time, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Tulshi Patel confirmed her mother and aunt were in "good health" and had "prepared well for the trip," a journey they had been anticipating since the beginning of the year.
Describing her family's efforts to locate them, she said, "We've messaged them both in the hopes that maybe we'll see a tick to say they've seen it or read it." She continued, "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."
The family considered traveling to Nepal to assist in search efforts but ultimately decided against it due to uncertainty about how close they could get to the affected region.