Girl Swept Away By 2004 Tsunami Found
Pictured: Girl who survived after being swept away in Indonesian tsunami is reunited with her father after seven years
- Girl had no recollection of her family
- Parents identified their daughter from mole and scar on her elbow
This was the moment a girl believed to have been killed in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami was reunited with her father Yusuf.
The girl identified as Wati, now 15, was just eight-years-old when she was separated from her family as a massive wave crashed into their village in Ujong Baroh on the island of Sumatra.
Her mother, Yusniar had been trying to escape the waters to safety with Wati and her two siblings when she lost her grip on the little girl, according to the Indonesian news agency Antara.
Wati then disappeared into the consuming water and was swept away to her apparent death.
Yusniar managed to hold onto her other two children and became resigned Wati had perished.
Her family made several attempts to find her but she was not seen since.
But on Wednesday the girl's grandfather Ibrahim met a friend at his home in the city of Meulaboh.
He took along a teenage girl he had found who had no memory of her family.
She had been discovered sitting alone in a coffee bar but when questioned she said that she had arrived in the city by bus from Banda Aceh and was trying to find her way home, The Telegraph reported.2004 Indian Ocean earthquake,
Ibrahim immediately suspected that she could be Wati and contacted Yusinar and her husband who arrived to meet her.
The couple said they recognised the girl as their daughter after seeing a distinctive mole and scar on her elbow from when she was six-years-old.
It remains unclear what happened to Wati in the seven years since she disappeared.
The deadly tsunami, triggered by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean and killed more than 150,000 people in several countries in southern Asia.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2077726/First-picture-Girl-survived-swept-away-tsunami-seven-years-ago.html#ixzz1hNlUYOhJ
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