Skip to main content

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

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaDisasters & emergencies

වනාතවිල්ලුවේ හටගත්තේ ලැව් ගින්නක්, එමගින් කිසිඳු වන සංහාරයක් සිදුව නැත - ආනන්ද සාගර හිමි

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim was that Ananda Sagara Thero had said the incident at Wanathawilluwa was a wildfire and that no forest destruction had occurred. The review says a newspaper clipping containing that statement was shared on social media as his comment. It reports that the Thero denied making the statement, and that his own post described it as fabricated from an edited excerpt of a newspaper interview. The review quotes the circulated wording as: “වනාතවිල්ලුවේ හටගත්තේ ලැව් ගින්නක් බවත් එමගින් කිසිඳු වන සංහාරයක් සිදුව නැති බවත් දැක්වෙන ප්‍රකාශයක්.” To check the attribution, the publisher says it examined the Thero’s Facebook post and searched newspaper reporting of his earlier statements. It identifies the source material as a Mawbima newspaper article from 20 May 2019, on page 6, and compares its headline with the version circulated online. The review says the original headline concerned whether the president and prime minister feared Rishad Bathiudeen; the false version replaced that text with the wildfire and forest-destruction wording. It also reports that the correct newspaper excerpt had been posted by the Protect Sri Lanka Facebook page. The relevant description is: “ජනපතියි අගමැතියි රිශාඩ් බදියුදීන්ට බයද ?” On the evidence described, the disputed wording was not a genuine statement by the Thero: it was inserted into an altered newspaper clipping. The review’s conclusion is that posts attributing the wildfire claim to him were fabricated. Its conclusion concerns the authenticity and attribution of the clipping, rather than independently establishing what caused the event at Wanathawilluwa. The review concludes: “වනාතවිල්ලුවේ හට ගත්තේ ලැව් ගින්නක් ලෙස ප්‍රකාශයක් සුරකිමු ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංවිධානයේ සභාපති ආනන්ද සාගර හිමියන් විසින් සිදු කළා යයි පළවන සටහන් සම්පුර්ණයෙන්ම සාවද්‍ය, ව්‍යාජ ලෙස සංස්කරණය කරන ලද සටහන් බවයි.”

Fact CrescendoDisasters & emergencies

Claim: This bus accident picture not related to post covid lockdown

Publisher’s rating: False

The post concerned an overturned government bus photo said to show a driver causing a crash after being told to drive again following a six-month rest. It placed the scene at Aravankadu and tied the story to buses resuming service during the pandemic. The review says the post was shared on September 1, 2020, and notes that the claim described buses restarting from that date within districts, with inter-district service permitted from September 7. The review found no report of a bus crash in the Nilgiris, where Aravankadu is located. (S1) To trace the picture, the investigators say they used reverse-image search. They found it had appeared on a website in 2018, though that site was no longer operating, and its caption described an accident near Nellai. They then searched using that location and found a Dinathanthi report dated October 22, 2018, featuring the image. That report described a bus travelling from Nellai toward Tenkasi with more than 35 passengers, which lost control at Nallur Vilakku and overturned into a roadside ditch. (S1) The review also says a search turned up a New Generation video report about the 2018 crash. It concludes that the old accident image was recirculated with a false claim linking it to the post-lockdown bus service and the alleged driver mistake. The supplied excerpt supports the review’s image-provenance account and conclusion; it does not provide the video’s contents or additional details about the crash. (S1)

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Video of floodwaters surging into a city of China.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post presented footage of floodwaters surging into a city as a recent disaster in China. FACTLY’s review identifies the footage as showing tsunami waves entering Ishinomaki, Japan, during the 2011 disaster—not flooding in China. The review also notes that the post linked the supposed flooding to punishment for China spreading COVID-19, a claim that does not establish where or when the video was filmed. To check the footage, the review says it used reverse-image searches on screenshots and found similar visuals in a YouTube video posted by William Castronuovo. Its description identified the scene as the tsunami in Ishinomaki. FACTLY then found the same video on FNN311, the official channel of Japan’s FUJI news network, which the review describes as dedicated to videos about the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The account on FNN311 supplies the key location and event details: a powerful earthquake off northeastern Japan on 11 March 2011 caused large tsunami waves to surge into Ishinomaki, in Miyagi district. The video was shot from the rooftop of Ishinomaki Gas Corporation by an employee who was there as the waves suddenly reached the city. Those details identify the footage’s setting and provenance, directly contradicting the post’s attribution to China.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Photos of the metro line which collapsed near phoenix mall in Mumbai.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned social-media photos presented as showing a metro line that had collapsed near Phoenix Mall in Mumbai. FACTLY’s review identifies the depicted structure instead as an under-construction flyover at Sohna Road in Gurugram, Haryana. The distinction is central: the images may show a real collapse, but the review says they do not show the Mumbai metro-line collapse asserted in the post. Evidence: “A post is being shared on social media claiming it as showing the photos of the metro line which collapsed near Phoenix mall in Mumbai” and “Photos in the post show the collapsed under-construction flyover at Sohna road in Gurugram, not the metro line in Mumbai.” The review describes a reverse-image search as its method for tracing the pictures. It says that similar photos appeared in a video posted by ANI on YouTube on 22 August 2020; the video description identified a portion of an under-construction flyover at Sohna Road in Gurugram as having collapsed. The review further reports that the description said two people were injured. Evidence: “On reverse image search, similar photos as shared in the post were found in a video posted by ‘ANI’ news channel on YouTube on ‘22 August 2020’” and “In the description of this video, it is mentioned that a portion of an under-construction flyover collapsed at Sohna road in Gurugram, Haryana. It mentioned that 2 persons were injured in this accident.” FACTLY also cites an India TV article for details of the Gurugram incident: a section of a six-kilometre under-construction flyover collapsed near Sohna Road on 22 August 2020, and a concrete slab fell onto the road, injuring two people. The review says the NHAI and Gurugram police opened separate investigations into the cause. Those reported details support the identification of the images as Gurugram flyover-collapse photos, rather than evidence of a collapsed metro line near Phoenix Mall in Mumbai. Evidence: “section of a 6 km long under-construction flyover collapsed near Sohna road on ‘22 August 2020’” and “National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Gurugram police launched separate probes investigating the reasons behind the collapse.”

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Video of several cows washed away in the floodwaters in Dewas city of Madhya Pradesh

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a video presented as showing several cows swept away by floodwaters in Dewas city, Madhya Pradesh. The review says the video instead depicts cattle in Nayarit, Mexico, so the footage was not from the Indian location named in the claim. The review’s conclusion is that the video was falsely shared as showing flooding in Dewas. To investigate, the publisher reports using reverse image searches on screenshots from the video and finding a similar video on the YouTube channel Atolo Kecil. It says that video identifies the location as Nayarit and the incident date as 28 July 2020. The review also found similar visuals in a video from Imagen Noticias, described as reporting that the Zacualpan river overflowed and dragged cattle. Together, these findings connect the footage to the Mexican incident rather than the claimed Dewas event. The review further reports finding similar video in a UNO TV article, which says at least a dozen cows were swept away in Nayarit during storm Hanna. These accounts support the review’s central distinction: the footage depicts cattle caught in flooding, but its location and event were misrepresented as being in Madhya Pradesh.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Image of a sinkhole which opened up along the roadway in Banaras, Uttar Pradesh

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a photograph said to show a sinkhole that opened along a roadway in Banaras, Uttar Pradesh. FACTLY’s investigation identifies the image as one that had circulated online for years and says visual clues place it in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, rather than Banaras. In the image, the barricades bear the letters “AMC”; the review identifies this as Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and notes that the lettering is also in Gujarati. To check the location, the review says it compared the claimed image with a screenshot from a video of a sinkhole on the Swastik intersection road in Ahmedabad. It reports that the video shows barricades similar to those in the image, also marked “AMC.” The article says the video was uploaded on 26 June 2019, but does not establish that as the date the sinkhole opened. Its conclusion rests on the matching municipal barricade markings and visual comparison, rather than on evidence that the image depicts a Banaras event. The review also gives an earlier trace of the photograph: a social-media post by Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh dated 27 July 2017 shared the same image. That history supports the finding that the image was already circulating well before the post under review. The excerpt mentions that India Today had debunked a Varanasi attribution of the same image in 2018, but does not provide that earlier investigation’s details.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Traffic signal post being swept away in a flooded street of India.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as showing flooding in India sweeping away a traffic-signal post. FACTLY reports that the footage instead shows an incident in Yulin city in southern China in 2018, and says the video is not related to India. The review identifies the post’s claim as “Traffic signal post being swept away in a flooded street of India.” (S1: “Claim: Traffic signal post being swept away in a flooded street of India.”; “In 2018, due to the heavy rain, a temporary traffic signal post was swept down in the flooded streets of Yulin city in South China.”; “It is an old video and not related to India.”) The review describes two checks of the footage. First, it examined writing visible on signboards and stickers on a bike, which it found was Mandarin rather than an Indian language. Second, it used reverse-image searches on screenshots from the video and found what it identified as the same footage on the official YouTube channel of Chinese news channel CGTN. (S1: “On observing carefully, we found that names on the signboards and stickers on a bike are not in any of the Indian languages.”; “When we searched for the language on the signboards and stickers, we found that it is Mandarin, the official language of China and Taiwan.”; “On reverse image search of screenshots in the video, we found a similar video in the official YouTube channel of Chinese Government news channel ‘CGTN’.”) According to FACTLY, CGTN’s video description locates the incident in Yulin, and the video says it was shot on 11 May 2018. The review also reports finding the same video on CGTN’s official Twitter account and on The Weather Channel’s website, which it says likewise identifies the location as Yulin in southern China. This evidence supports the review’s conclusion that the footage was misrepresented as showing India. (S1: “In the description of this video, they mentioned that a temporary traffic signal post was swept down in a flooded street of Yulin city in South China.”; “Also, it is mentioned in the video that it was shot on ‘11 May 2018’.”; “This same video was shared in ‘The Weather Channel’ website. In this website also, it is mentioned as an incident in Yulin city of South China.”)