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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Disasters & emergencies fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about disasters & emergencies. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

3,259 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Images of Ajit Mill bridge collapse in Ahmedabad

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examined social-media images being presented as showing a collapse at Ajit Mill bridge in Ahmedabad. It reports that its investigation instead traced the images to an under-construction flyover collapse in Nagpur, Maharashtra, on 19 October 2021. It also says it found no reports of a bridge collapse near Ajit Mill Circle in Ahmedabad. To check the images’ provenance, the review describes searching relevant terms and finding a news report with an image similar to one in the post. It then compared the viral images with that published image, reporting visible similarities. The review says it found further news articles with similar images that also attributed them to the Nagpur collapse. This is the image-comparison and reporting evidence it gives for identifying the location; the excerpt does not describe independently verifying the Ahmedabad claim beyond the search for reports. The review’s account of the Nagpur incident specifies the Pardi-Kalamna flyover and places the collapse between Kalamna and Gomti Hotel Square. It quotes a contemporaneous post describing about 10 girders between two columns caving in on Tuesday evening and saying that no casualties were reported. These details identify the event the review associates with the images, rather than an Ahmedabad bridge collapse.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Video of Hurricane Shaheen on the shores of Oman photographed from Burj Khalifa in Dubai

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post identified the video as Hurricane Shaheen on Oman’s shores and claimed it had been filmed from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The investigation instead traced the footage to digital art made by artist Brent Shavnore, rather than a recording of the cyclone. It reports that reverse image searches of screenshots found the same video on Shavnore’s Instagram account, where it had been posted on 20 May 2019. The review also notes that Shavnore describes himself as an artist and that his profile contains similar work, including a similar picture posted on 12 April 2019. The video had circulated before Shaheen, with a different claim: that it showed Hurricane Dorian moving toward Florida in 2019. The review says the Associated Press contacted Shavnore while checking that earlier claim, and that he confirmed he had created the visual. This earlier provenance directly undercuts the post’s identification of the video as footage of Shaheen. The review distinguishes the real cyclone from the circulating artwork: Shaheen made landfall on Oman’s northern coast on 3 October 2021, after the video had already appeared online in 2019. It reports heavy rain and winds of up to 150 km/h, and says the cyclone affected Oman and Iran and killed at least 13 people.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

A person in Bangalore broke a pillar as part of renovation which resulted in the collapse of the building

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The post attached a video of a building collapse to the claim that someone in Bangalore broke a pillar during renovation, causing the building to fall. The review identifies the video as showing a three-storey building in the Kasturi Nagar area of Bengaluru and says the building had developed cracks and tilted several days before it collapsed on 7 October 2021. The excerpt does not describe evidence of pillar-breaking or renovation as the cause. According to the review, residents alerted the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), whose officials evacuated the building and occupants of nearby buildings because of the danger. The building then collapsed on its own, and no casualties were reported. Thus, the account given in the review links the collapse to a building already showing signs of structural distress, not to the claimed renovation work. The review also reports that the building plan had been approved for a ground floor and two upper floors, but that the builder constructed a third floor and was building a penthouse illegally. That detail is reported as background about the building; the excerpt does not establish it as the immediate cause of the collapse. Overall, the review’s account contradicts the post’s asserted pillar-breaking explanation.

dpaDisasters & emergencies

Flut durch Wettermanipulation, offizielle Hilfe blieb tagelang aus oder wurde zurückgehalten, Deutschland verzichtet auf EU-Unterstützung.

Publisher’s rating: Einige der Behauptungen sind falsch, etwa die angeblich ausgebliebene Hilfe offizieller Einsatzkräfte oder die Angaben über den Umfang der Hilfsgelder. Zudem gibt es viele Ungenauigkeiten, Irreführungen sowie Aussagen, für die keinerlei Belege aufgeführt werden oder für die Dokumente falsch interpretiert wurden.

The claim combines three allegations made in a Facebook video about the July 2021 floods in Rheinland-Pfalz and Nordrhein-Westfalen: that weather manipulation caused the disaster, official responders were kept from helping for days, and Germany turned down European assistance. The review finds no evidence connecting weather manipulation to this flood. It describes the video’s reference to chemtrails as unsupported and says the cited 2013 Interior Ministry document is a public risk analysis of disaster scenarios, not evidence that the state planned a catastrophe. The assertion that official help did not arrive for days is contradicted by the evidence described in the review. A claim that 700 firefighters had gone a week without deployment orders came from an anonymous blog post and, the review says, was unsupported. Schleswig-Holstein’s Interior Ministry reported that 700 responders set out for the affected areas on July 21; another ministry statement said initial helpers, including divers, were already working there on July 19. The EU-assistance claim needs qualification. Germany did not accept assistance through the EU Emergency Response Coordination Centre, which coordinates member-state responders and equipment. But the review says Germany intended to seek reconstruction funding through the European Solidarity Fund. The video’s broad framing therefore omits a distinction between emergency-response assistance and post-disaster recovery funding.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Visuals related to cyclone Shaheen

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned three videos circulated as visuals of Cyclone Shaheen: cars swept away by floodwater, a cloudburst, and dense clouds over a seacoast. FACTLY examined the videos using reverse-image searches and comparisons with earlier reports and posts. Its review concludes that none of the visuals shown was from Shaheen: the flood footage was from Sharjah in 2020, the cloud video was online by 2019, and the coastal cloud formation was filmed at Bheemili beach in Visakhapatnam in June 2021. For the first video, the review says reverse-image searches led to a 2020 news article reporting the same footage as cars washed away in flash floods in Sharjah. For the second, it found the video on the internet by 2019, including an Instagram post from November 2019 describing a tornado at Pakistan’s Gwadar coast. FACTLY also found a 2019 YouTube upload attributing it to Gwadar, while noting that it could not identify the video’s exact location or source. Its earlier online presence nevertheless showed it was not footage of the recent cyclone. For the third video, reverse-image searches returned Telugu news reports identifying the scene as dense clouds over Bheemili beach, Visakhapatnam, in June 2021. Together, the distinct earlier dates and locations show why the videos do not document Cyclone Shaheen, which the review says made landfall near Al-Khaburah, Oman, that Sunday.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Video of UP Police rescuing themselves out from an overturned vehicle in a water-logged street

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The video was shared as showing Uttar Pradesh Police struggling in a waterlogged street. FACTLY’s review says the footage instead shows an incident in Bandikui town, Dausa district, Rajasthan, and concludes that the UP attribution is false. It describes an electric rickshaw carrying five “chalani guards” to Kolana jail overturning on a water-filled road.

dpaDisasters & emergencies

La photo montre un accident avec trois morts et sept blessés qui s'est produit tout à l'heure.

Publisher’s rating: Il s’agit d’une publication dite de « phishing », ou bien d’hameçonnage. La photo de l'accident date de 2012 et le lien mène vers une page douteuse.

The claim concerned a Facebook post from 1 October 2021 that presented an accident photo as showing a recent crash with three dead and seven injured. The post asked readers to follow a link to help identify victims. The review says the image was not from a new accident: it identifies it as a photograph of a 2012 crash in Haute-Saône, France, near the A36 at Sausheim-Ile Napoléon. To establish the image’s earlier provenance, the review points to a report by the French outlet L’Alsace. It says that report identified the scene as a 2012 accident involving a Polish coach and records a substantially different toll: two deaths and more than forty injuries. That history contradicts the post’s presentation of the photo as evidence of an accident that had just happened with three deaths and seven injuries. The review also examined the link attached to the post. It reports that aide-medical.com displayed a Facebook logo but was not Facebook’s website, and that the page presented a login form requesting an email address and Facebook password. The investigation therefore treated the post not simply as a misdated accident image, but as a deceptive appeal directing users to a page designed to collect login details.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturDisasters & emergencies

Das Bild zeigt einen beschädigten Bus der NEOS.

Publisher’s rating: Das Foto wurde bearbeitet, wie am Bild deutlich erkennbar ist. Nach Angaben der Partei handelt es sich um Fake News.

The image circulated as showing a NEOS party bus with damage to its front, apparently from a car accident. The review locates the bus in the image beside Vienna’s Volksgarten, with the Austrian and European flags visible on the Federal Chancellery behind it. It reports that the apparent damage is not genuine: the image was edited, and the party said the bus was fine. The review describes two checks supporting that conclusion. First, it compared the image with a picture of an undamaged NEOS bus, which appeared to show the vehicle at the same or a similar location; the distinctive turquoise-green roof of the Burgtheater was visible in the background. Second, it noted inconsistencies in the purportedly damaged area, which NEOS had also pointed out in a tweet. The review does not identify the original photograph, saying it could not be found online. The image had circulated for years before the 2021 review. It had been shared by FPÖ European Parliament member Harald Vilimsky in April 2019, and NEOS responded shortly afterward on Twitter. Taken together, the party’s response, the comparison with an undamaged bus, and the visual irregularities support the conclusion that the image does not show a genuinely damaged NEOS bus.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Recent crash-landing visuals of Russian Aeroflot flight SU1492

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a video presented on social media as recent footage of Russian Aeroflot flight SU1492 crash-landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport. The post also said 41 passengers died. The review distinguishes the real accident from the video being circulated: it reports that SU1492 crashed at Sheremetyevo on 5 May 2019, while the shared video was digitally created using simulation software. Thus, the documented crash does not establish that the circulating visuals depict it. To check the footage, the investigators searched for information about the SU1492 crash and consulted the Aviation Safety Network (ASN), which they say recorded the accident details. They also examined screenshots from the circulated video using reverse image search. That search located a video with similar visuals on a YouTube channel, where its uploader described it as a digitally simulated video made by a Kwai user. The review further reports that the footage carried a watermark identifying the Kwai account “mariajosesuarez68006.” The review says it could not establish the video’s origin, so it does not identify who created it or how it first spread. Its conclusion rests on the distinction between the established 2019 accident and the simulated footage presented as showing that event—not on a claim that the accident itself did not happen.

FactcrescendoDisasters & emergencies

মমতা সরকারের আমলে পশ্চিমবঙ্গে বাড়ির ভেতরে জল ঢুকে যাওয়ার দৃশ্য

Publisher’s rating: MISSING CONTEXT

The claim concerned a viral video presented as showing flooding inside a home in West Bengal during Mamata Banerjee’s government. The review describes footage of a couple in waist-deep water inside a house and notes that the post made a joke by recasting the state’s “Duare Sarkar” (“government at the doorstep”) campaign as “Duare swimming.” The review’s finding was that the video was not from West Bengal: it showed a flooded home in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, in 2019. To trace the footage, the reviewer says it split the video into keyframes using InVID WeVerify and ran a reverse image search. That search led to an India News YouTube presentation uploaded on 22 September 2019, whose title identified the footage as swimming in floodwater inside a house in Prayagraj. The review also reports finding stills from the video in a Khujal photo gallery dated 21 September 2019, and says a Patrika report from that date likewise placed the flooding in Prayagraj. The review describes the 2019 flooding as occurring after water levels in the Ganges and Yamuna rose with rainfall and overflow entered parts of Prayagraj. It distinguishes that event from heavy rain and waterlogging in Kolkata during the month of the viral post, reporting that water accumulated on streets there, but says the video had no connection to that rainfall. Thus, the footage’s reported location and date contradict its presentation as a scene from West Bengal under Mamata Banerjee’s government.

YouturnDisasters & emergencies

மூளையை பாதிக்கும் 7 முக்கிய பழக்கங்கள். 1. காலை உணவை தவிர்ப்பது 2. தாமதமாக தூங்குவது 3. அதிகளவு சர்க்கரையை எடுத்துக் கொள்ளுவது 4. அதிகநேரம் தூங்குவது, குறிப்பாக காலையில் 5. டிவி அல்லது கணினியை பார்த்துக் கொண்டே உணவு உண்பது 6. தூங்கும் போது தொப்பி /ஸ்கார்ஃப் அல்லது சாக்ஸ் அணிவது 7. சிறுநீரை அடக்கி வைக்கும் பழக்கம்

Publisher’s rating: Fake