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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.

3,262 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

A train travelling between Chhapra and Anand Vihar railway station had met with an accident on 12 June 2021

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media collage said to show a train accident on 12 June 2021 on the Chhapra–Anand Vihar route. FACTLY’s review examined both images in the collage rather than relying on the route description alone. It reports that reverse-image searches found similar images in older news coverage, linking them to a 2018 fire involving the Andhra Pradesh Superfast Express.

dpaDisasters & emergencies

Une collision entre deux voitures a fait 9 morts et un blessé.

Publisher’s rating: La photo utilisée montre en fait un accident qui s’est produit en France le 10 juin 2016. Il s’agit d’une arnaque visant à extorquer les données privées des utilisateurs.

A Facebook post circulated in Belgian groups on June 9, 2021, claiming that a collision between two cars had caused nine deaths. The investigation focused on the photograph accompanying that post and whether it showed the alleged fatal crash. It traced the image through a reverse-image search to a Franceinfo article about a two-car accident in Saze, in the Gard department, near Avignon. That 2016 report said both drivers were injured and that no one died, contradicting the post’s account of what the image depicted. The image also appeared in a Midi Libre article, and the investigation identified the Gard departmental fire and rescue service, SDIS 30, as the photo’s source. The service shared the image on its website on June 13, 2016, describing the accident as having happened three days earlier and noting that local firefighters attended. Thus, the image predates the 2021 post by five years and documents a different outcome: two injured drivers, not nine fatalities. The review also notes that the post claimed a pregnant woman and a two-year-old child were in critical condition, details not supported by the identified reporting about the pictured accident. The post urged readers to click a link to see photos and videos and help identify the victims, then sign in to Facebook. The review describes the link’s URL as suspicious because it did not contain Facebook’s domain, and says the login page imitated Facebook. Its conclusion is that the post was designed to collect users’ account details, rather than to provide genuine information about victims.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Visuals of the severity of Cyclone Yaas in the states of Odisha and West Bengal

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned photos and videos circulated as showing the severity of Cyclone Yaas in Odisha and West Bengal. FACTLY’s review examined three sets of visuals and reported that none depicted Yaas: it identified the first photo as debris after Cyclone Mekunu in Oman, the second video as storm footage from Uruguay, and the third as a computer-generated simulation. The review therefore found the visuals unrelated to the cyclone they were said to show. The investigation describes reverse image searches as its checking method. For the photo, it found a similar image in a Hindustan Times article and a VOA report, with the former’s caption identifying debris on a beach after Cyclone Mekunu in Salalah, Oman, on 26 May 2018. For the second post, searches for video screenshots led to a YouTube video from 2016 identified as tornado footage from Dolores, Uruguay. The review also cites a later instance in which the same video was shared as Cyclone Irma footage and Ukrainian outlet UkrNews24.com clarified its 2016 Uruguay origin. For the remaining video, the review reports finding similar visuals in a YouTube upload dated 22 December 2018. Its description called the footage a simulation made with CGI, and the review says a YouTube user shared a CGI breakdown of that video. These provenance checks support the review’s conclusion that the three sets of visuals were not evidence of Cyclone Yaas’s impact in Odisha or West Bengal.

Fact CrescendoDisasters & emergencies

Claim: This cyclone footage is not related with the recent Yaas cyclone

Publisher’s rating: False

Fact Crescendo investigated a video posted on Facebook on May 26, 2021, and described as showing a tree carried away in six seconds during Cyclone Yaas in Odisha. The review says Yaas crossed the Odisha coast on May 26, after which related news and videos circulated online. Its conclusion is that the video was not footage of Yaas: it had been circulating on YouTube since 2016, years before the cyclone.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Video showing the present situation in West Bengal’s Digha due to cyclone Yaas

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerned a social-media video of waves engulfing houses along a shore, presented as showing conditions in Digha, West Bengal, during cyclone Yaas. FACTLY’s review distinguishes the location and storm shown in the footage from the real conditions in Digha: it reports that the video instead shows cyclone Tauktae in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Its conclusion is that the video does not depict the claimed event. (S1)

dpaDisasters & emergencies

Un horrible accident de la route s'est produit il y a une heures de cela. trois jeunes âgés de 16 à 23 ans sont décédés.

Publisher’s rating: Il s’agit d’une arnaque visant à obtenir les données personnelles des utilisateurs. La photo en question date en réalité du 5 septembre 2020.

The post circulated in Belgian Facebook groups on 24 May 2021. It claimed that three young people aged 16 to 23 had died in a recent crash, that a fourth person was near death, and urged readers to check with people they knew. It used a photo said to show the incident and a link promising a photo of the victims and video of the crash. The dpa investigation found that the image did not document a new crash: it was from an accident on 5 September 2020 on rue du Général de Gaulle in Courcelles. The local newspaper La Dernière Heure had reported that the 2020 accident caused one death and two injuries, not the three deaths claimed in the post. The review therefore concludes that the image was being reused and that the pictured accident did not happen on 24 May 2021. The investigation also examined where the post’s link led. Rather than showing the promised accident material, it opened a page styled like Facebook that asked users for their email address and Facebook password. The review says entering those details would give scammers access to the user’s account. Thus the post combined an old accident photo and a false urgent warning with a link designed to collect personal login information.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Video of Lions in Gir Forest survived Cyclone Tauktae

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post claimed that its video showed lions in Gujarat’s Gir Forest surviving Cyclone Tauktae. FACTLY reports that the video was not filmed in Gir: it traced the same footage to MalaMala Game Reserve, within Sabi Sand Game Reserve in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province. The review says the video was shot there on 13 February 2021, before the cyclone, and that the reserve’s Instagram post described a safari encounter with two lion prides. To check the footage’s origin, the review says it performed a reverse image search on screenshots from the circulating video. That search found the MalaMala Game Reserve Instagram post, which contained the same video. The article also cites news reporting that confirmed the footage came from a South African game reserve and describes how Gujarat officials had shared it as evidence about Gir lions after the cyclone. After the video was identified as African footage, it was deleted and an apology was issued. The review distinguishes the miscaptioned video from the separate question of Gir lions’ safety. It reports that Gujarat’s forest department said lions had moved to safety during the storm, while also noting media reports quoting senior forest officials that 18 lions were reported missing in three coastal districts. Those statements do not change the video’s provenance: footage from South Africa could not establish what happened to Gir’s lions during Tauktae.