PETALING JAYA, June 3 — A mother panicked when she discovered that she had left her pre-teen daughter behind as the family were on their journey ‘balik kampung’ along the East Coast Expressway.

The incident which occurred sometime after 2pm earlier today, was documented by @Sutungmenjerit on her Twitter account at 2.47pm.

"Anyone near Temerloh, please help. My daughter got left behind at the Shell R&R Temerloh. Mama is now at 143.6km East bound.”

The woman who did not tweet the size of her family that was travelling, or where they were headed, said her 12-year-old daughter had been left behind after performing her prayers and family members had forgotten to do a head count.

In a reply to another Twitter user, the mother said her daughter did not have a handphone, but that staff from Shell had contacted her to say they would look after the girl and send her when they had a motorcycle.

It is not known exactly when they realised a member of the family missing, or how – but given the location of the R&R and the location the woman said she and her family had stopped, it would have been at least 15km distance.

At 3.34pm, @Sutungmenjerit tweeted a photo of her daughter and a worker named Suria from the petrol station on a motorcycle, and said the Shell staff had helped send her daughter back to the awaiting family members.

While Twitter users were more than willing to help spread the word, with the initial tweet garnering over 4,600 retweets, with many who were supportive – some took the opportunity to chime in light-hearted jibes including @dak_arepppp who simply tweeted, "Mom of the year”.