Girl rescued in US after using TikTok domestic violence hand signal

A 16-year-old girl was rescued in Kentucky after using a hand gesture she learned on social media app TikTok to signal to motorists that she was in trouble, the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said on Monday.

The signal, facing the palm outwards and closing the fingers around the tucked thumb, has been demonstrated by users and non-profit organizations on TikTok as a way for a person being abused to tell someone they are in trouble without alerting the abuser.

On Thursday, the girl was in the front passenger seat and made the signals from inside the car, a spokesperson for the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said. A driver recognized the sign and called 9-1-1, which dispatched law enforcement officers to intercept the vehicle.