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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

Video of a youth who fell into the Aharbal waterfall and lost his life in Jammu and Kashmir

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as showing a youth who fell into Aharbal waterfall in Jammu and Kashmir and died. FACTLY distinguishes the real death at Aharbal from the video attached to the claim: it reports that the footage instead shows a youth who drowned at Arasinagundi waterfall in Udupi district, Karnataka. The review says that the Aharbal death involved a different person and that the shared video depicts another incident. To investigate the video’s origin, FACTLY says it conducted a reverse image search using screenshots from it. That search found a video with similar visuals published by CNN-News 18, whose description identified a man falling into an overflowing Udupi waterfall while shooting a reel. The review also says that reporting on the Karnataka incident identified the victim as 23-year-old Sharath from Shivamogga district and reported that he slipped and drowned while posing for an Instagram reel. The review notes that a 22-year-old youth from Shopian did fall into the overflowing Aharbal waterfall, but explains that this separate event does not establish the video’s claimed location. Its conclusion is that the post misattributes Karnataka footage to the Aharbal incident.

dpaDisasters & emergencies

Deze video laat zien dat de media overdrijven en de brand op Rhodos niet zo erg is als zij zeggen.

Publisher’s rating: Deze video toont een momentopname en laat niet het volledige plaatje zien. Het is daarom misleidend. De natuurbranden in Rhodos woedden over een periode van meer dan een week, met wisselende intensiteit en op verschillende plekken. Satellietbeelden laten zien dat de schade een groter oppervlakte bedekt dan de enkele rookpluim in de video. Het opnamemoment van de video blijft bovendien onduidelijk.

The video shows Rhodes from above, with a single plume of smoke; the person filming says, in German, that the media claim “all of Rhodes is burning.” The claim being checked is that this footage disproves media coverage and shows the fires were not that serious. The review’s central point is that a brief aerial view cannot represent a fire crisis that lasted more than a week and affected different parts of the island at varying intensity. The review says the footage’s exact recording date could not be established. It confirms the location as Rhodes by comparing the island’s shape and visible landmarks with the landscape, and says the plume’s location corresponds to fires reported on 25 July. NASA’s FIRMS fire-information system showed other fires north of Lake Gadoura; a week-long FIRMS overview showed fires across parts of the interior and southeast coast. The review cautions that these satellite systems help show fires at larger scale but require care when interpreting detail. Other evidence describes the scale beyond what the video’s one plume shows. The review reports that Greek media said about 10 percent of the island had burned in the preceding week and that tens of thousands of people were evacuated; evacuation orders were also issued for three southeastern locations on 25 July. An ESA satellite image from 23 July showed already-burned land, estimated by ESA at 11,000 hectares, or 7.85 percent of Rhodes. The review also notes that the fires continued for several days after that image. It does not claim the whole island was burning: the north was largely spared, and the situation across the island was calmer by the review’s reporting.

TelugupostDisasters & emergencies

Viral video shows Crocodile killing a person in Andaman/Armoor

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigates a 25-second video of a crocodile biting a person’s body that circulated with two Indian-location claims: a YouTube caption placed it in Baratang, Port Blair, in the Andaman Islands, while a Telugu WhatsApp caption claimed it happened in Armoor, Nizamabad, Telangana. The review says the footage instead depicts an incident in Indonesia in April 2019, not a recent event in India. To trace the clip, the review reports conducting a reverse image search. It found the video on Facebook in April 2019, although that post did not establish the location. The reviewers then searched for reports using the terms “Crocodile kills man 2019” and found coverage identifying the victim as Darlin Uti, 30, and the location as Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. The review says Uti was snorkeling in a river on April 12, 2019, to repair an underwater pipe near his home when the crocodile attacked. The account also cites reporting about the attempted rescue and recovery. It says Uti’s sister tried to pull him to safety using the hose he was using to breathe underwater, and that search-and-rescue workers found his body the following day. Taken together, the review’s reported 2019 circulation of the same video and its identification of the Indonesian incident contradict the Indian-location and recent-event framing. The supplied text does not provide the underlying Facebook, Newsflare, Daily Star, or Mirror articles themselves, so those details are presented here as the original review’s account of its research.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Video depicting the collapse of a newly constructed metro overhead in India

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review addresses a video circulated with the claim that it depicts a newly constructed overhead metro structure collapsing in India. It concludes that the footage instead shows an under-construction bridge collapse in Lat Krabang, Bangkok. The distinction is important: the review does not dispute that a collapse is visible, but says the video has been assigned the wrong location and type of structure. Evidence: “A video showing the collapse of an elevated metro line or flyover is currently making rounds on social media platforms, with an assertion that the footage captures the failure of a newly constructed overhead metro structure in India”; “The visuals depict the collapse of an under-construction bridge in the Lat Krabang district of Bangkok.” The review describes two checks. First, a reverse image search of screenshots from the circulating video led investigators to a Singapore-based YouTube channel that identified the incident as having occurred in Lat Krabang. Further searches found news reports about a bridge collapse along Luang Phaeng Road. The review says the event took place on 10 July 2023 and that those reports described two deaths and at least 17 injuries. Evidence: “A reverse image search of the screenshots of the viral video led us to a Singapore-based YouTube channel that shared the same visuals stating that the incident happened in the Lat Krabang district of Bangkok”; “According to these reports, the incident occurred on 10 July 2023, resulting in the unfortunate loss of two lives and leaving at least 17 people injured.” To test the location visually, the review compared the viral footage with images of the location identified in the news reports. It specifies a PTT petrol station and says images available through Google Maps matched the viral visuals. On that basis, it concludes that the footage is from Bangkok, not India, and depicts a bridge under construction rather than a newly constructed metro overhead. Evidence: “On comparing the images of the location (ptt petrol station) mentioned in the news reports, which are available on Google Maps, and the viral visuals, we have verified that the visuals indeed show an incident from Bangkok.”

dpaDisasters & emergencies

De LIDL-supermarkt in Lille die klanten toegang begon te geven met alleen een app is 21 juli afgebrand.

Publisher’s rating: De datum klopt niet en de context waarin de brand ontstond ontbreekt in de berichten. De gedeelde video is van een brand in een Lidl in Wattrelos, iets ten noorden van Lille en op de grens met België. De brand ontstond tijdens nachtelijk geweld eind juni dat in heel Frankrijk oplaaide na de dood van een 17-jarige jongen door de politie.