Mother in plea to trace daughter missing in Thailand

A mother has made a desperate online appeal for help to trace her daughter after she went missing in Thailand.

Sam Taylor raised the alarm after her 21-year-old daughter Grace had failed to make contact with the family since February 16 while she was backpacking in Pattaya.

Grace then called her mother from Ao Nang, in Krabi province, on Monday and sounded "very stressed and frightened", Ms Taylor said in a post on Facebook.

The family, from Swanage, Dorset, booked her a flight from Krabi airport but Grace did not board the plane even though she was believed to have arrived there between 8.30pm and 9.30pm local time.

In a post on Monday, Ms Taylor said: "Grace contacted us at 11am today from Ao Nang, she was very stressed and frightened saying that people were trying to hurt her and were following her and she wanted to come home. We calmed her down and booked her a flight from Krabi tonight but she apparently reached the airport but didn't catch her flight and has gone missing again.

"We are desperately worried, all previous backpacker sightings have reported that she is disorientated and not in a good mental state."

Ms Taylor has reported her missing to Dorset Police and the Foreign Office (FO) and appealed for backpackers in the country to help locate Grace.

A family member would be flying to Thailand to join the search and bring her home, she added.

An FO spokesman said: "We are in touch with local authorities about a British national who was reported missing in Thailand and are providing consular assistance to the family."