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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

Deutsche Presse-AgenturDisasters & emergencies

Das Video zeigt die brennende Alcazar-Bibliothek in Marseille.

Publisher’s rating: Das Video zeigt den Brand der Hauptpost von Manila im Mai 2023. Es hat nichts mit den jüngsten Ausschreitungen in Frankreich zu tun.

The video was circulated as showing migrants setting fire to Marseille’s Alcazar library during the unrest in France. The investigation finds that this identification is wrong: the footage shows a fire at Manila’s main post office, thousands of kilometres away. It distinguishes the video’s location from a separate fire-related incident at the Alcazar library in June 2023.

dpaDisasters & emergencies

Deze beelden tonen een brand in de bibliotheek van Marseille

Publisher’s rating: De beelden tonen een brand in het postkantoor van Manila in mei 2023. Ze hebben niets te maken met de huidige rellen in Frankrijk.

The claim concerned footage shared in early July 2023 as showing the Alcazar library in Marseille during the unrest in France. The review identifies the building in the video as Manila’s central post office, not the library. It says the buildings do not match when compared using Google Maps, and that the post office does match the footage. The review describes two checks supporting that identification: a reverse-image search led to Indonesian- and Chinese-language articles dated May 22, and the post office had been struck by a major fire that day. It also notes that a June 2023 photograph showed fire damage at the post office. Together, those details place the footage in Manila and connect it to the May fire, rather than to the Marseille claim. The review distinguishes the false identification of the footage from a separate event in Marseille: it reports that rioters had tried to set fire to the Alcazar library, but had not succeeded. Thus, the library’s reported exposure to unrest does not establish that the video shows a fire there.

El Detector / Univision NoticiasDisasters & emergencies

Los cinco tripulantes del submarino Titán siguen con vida.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned a social-media video asserting that the five people aboard the Titan were still alive after the submersible was lost during an expedition to visit the Titanic wreck. The review says the video was posted on Facebook on June 23, 2023, and that its narration repeated the claim that “los cinco tripulantes del submarino siguen con vida.” The review concludes the claim was false, citing announcements made the day before by OceanGate Expeditions and the U.S. Coast Guard.

dpaDisasters & emergencies

Klimaatneutrale elektrische bus staat in brand in deze video.

Publisher’s rating: De bus in de video reed op diesel en was niet elektrisch. Dat bevestigen de brandweer en een woordvoerder van het Franse vervoersbedrijf Transdev.

The claim concerned a Facebook video showing a bus burning on a road. Its accompanying English text said an electric bus had caught fire spontaneously while the driver and passengers were still aboard; the post also mocked the vehicle as “climate-neutral.” The review identified the footage as showing a school bus that caught fire in Nîmes, in southern France, in January 2023. It reports that the driver and ten children were unharmed, while the cause of the fire was unknown. [S1] To identify the footage, the review notes that “ecole” is visible on the road and that bystanders speak French. It then describes searching in French for reports of bus fires in France and finding the Nîmes incident. The local paper Le Figaro had published the same video in its report on the fire; the footage had been filmed by a bystander and sent to local outlet Objectif Gard. [S1] The reports about the fire did not say whether the bus was electric. The review therefore sought direct confirmation from the Gard departmental fire service and a spokesperson for Transdev, the parent company of Nîmes’s local transport operator. Both said the bus shown in the video was diesel-powered, not electric. That evidence directly addresses the claim about this specific bus, rather than relying on the appearance of the fire or on general claims about electric vehicles. [S1]