A girl who has been reported missing for two days in North Carolina, United States, was rescued after using a distress signal seen on TikTok, the New York Times reports.

The girl tucked her thumb between her palms before closing her fingers over it; a signal created by the Canadian Women’s Foundation for people to communicate that they are at risk of abuse and need help.

In the last year, TikTok has seen an increase in the use of the signal.

On Thursday, the girl, 16, from Asheville, was seated in a car driving through Kentucky and looked to be waving through the window to passing vehicles, but a nearby driver recognized the TikTok sign and realized it was a distress signal.

The individual who noticed the signal dialled the U.S. emergency line, 911, expressing concern that the girl was in danger since she was making the hand gesture.

Despite the fact that the police officers had never seen the signal before, they stopped the car to investigate and discovered that the girl’s parents had reported her missing two days prior.

The driver of the car, James Herbert Brick, a priorly alleged child offender, has been arrested and charged with unlawful imprisonment.

Mr Brick also faces a child pornography charge for being in possession of a child pornographic picture on his phone. 

Since April 2020, organizations such as the World Bank and the Women’s Funding Network have publicized the signal, which has been watched by millions of people on TikTok and YouTube.

It started as a COVID-era lifeline for women in abusive situations, meant to be used during video chats to alert others to check upon them.