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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

Visuals inside a sleeper coach of the Coromandel Express that met with an accident in Odisha’s Balasore on 2 June 2023

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a crowded sleeper-coach video said to show the Coromandel Express involved in the 2 June 2023 accident in Balasore, Odisha. The investigation concludes that the video was recorded inside that train, but not on the day of the accident: it says passenger Sidhant Kumar Panda filmed it on 5 May 2023. This distinction matters because the video’s location is genuine, while its claimed timing is not. (S1) FACTLY reports that it searched the internet using relevant keywords and found a tweet by Panda containing the same video. According to the review, Panda had posted it to draw attention to conditions inside a Coromandel Express sleeper coach, tagging the Railway Minister and railway-related accounts. The article also says the official RailwaySeva account responded on 5 May, asking him to provide details or contact them. (S1) The review describes a later comment from Panda under that same tweet: after the 2 June accident, he thanked people concerned about his safety and said he was fine, adding that he had travelled on the Coromandel Express a few days before it was involved in the accident. The earlier tweet and this later comment support the review’s conclusion that the footage predates the crash; they do not show the train’s condition on the day of the accident. (S1)

YouturnDisasters & emergencies

இதுவரை, ஒடிசாவில் நடந்த ரயில் விபத்து 300 க்கும் மேற்பட்டவர்களைக் கொன்றது மற்றும் 900க்கும் மேற்பட்டோர் படுகாயமடைந்தது அது நடந்த ரயில் நிலையத்தின் பெயர். பஹானாகா நிலையம். இந்த நிலையத்தின் ஸ்டேஷன் மாஸ்டரின் பெயர் முகமது ஷெரீப் அகமது. விபத்து குறித்து விசாரிக்க உத்தரவிடப்பட்டதில் இருந்து முகமது ஷெரீப் அகமது தலைமறைவாக உள்ளார்.

Publisher’s rating: False

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

The viral video shows CCTV footage of the triple train accident that occurred in Balasore, Odisha

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as CCTV footage of the triple-train accident in Balasore, Odisha. FACTLY’s investigation says the video instead shows a 2019 head-on collision in Hyderabad, Telangana, involving an MMTS local train and the Hundri Inter-City Express. The review concludes that the footage is unrelated to the Odisha tragedy. To assess the video, the investigation says it examined the trains visible in the footage. One appeared to be a local train rather than an express passenger train. The review then describes a keyword search for collisions involving local trains, which led to 2019 reports about two trains colliding on the same track in Hyderabad. It says an NDTV report contained the same CCTV footage as the viral video. The account of that Hyderabad collision says the local MMTS train’s loco pilot ignored a red signal and started the train, leaving two trains on the same track before they collided head-on. The review’s distinction is therefore not simply that the footage depicts a train crash: it identifies the footage with a separate incident in Hyderabad, rather than the claimed Balasore accident.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Claim: Bahanaga Bazar Railway Station Master Mohammad sharif has been absconding since the occurrence of the accident and the structure located near the accident site is a mosque

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned two assertions about the 2023 train accident near Bahanaga Bazar railway station in Odisha: that station master Mohammad Sharif had been absent since the accident, and that a nearby structure was a mosque. The review reports that the station official in charge at the time was Assistant Station Master S.B. Mohanty, not Sharif. It also says Mohanty was under investigation, distinguishing his status from the claim that Sharif had absconded. The review quotes a Balasore GRPS sub-inspector as saying there was no station master named Sharif involved in the incident and calling the claim fake news. The review describes several checks of the identity and alleged absence claim. It says an FIR registered at Balasore GRPS did not name Sharif or any other person as absconding. It also recounts that local reports had said Mohanty was missing, but station manager S.K. Pattanayak later clarified that Mohanty, who was in charge during the accident, was under investigation. These details point to confusion or substitution of names: the reporting about Mohanty does not establish that Sharif was the station master or had disappeared. For the structure claim, the review says it compared visuals published by media outlets, then checked Google Earth and Google Maps, which identified the building as the Bahanga ISKCON Temple. It also reports that local journalists supplied visuals of the temple to fact-checking sites. Thus, the review's evidence contradicts both parts of the post: its account identifies Mohanty rather than Sharif as the official in charge and identifies the nearby structure as an ISKCON temple rather than a mosque.

Fact CrescendoDisasters & emergencies

Claim: 2015 dated photo being shared that rss volunteers involved in Odisha coromandel train accident rescue

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a photo shared as showing RSS volunteers helping with rescue work after the Coromandel train accident in Odisha on June 2, 2023. The review notes that the image appeared to show daylight activity, although the accident happened at night and the photo had been posted before dawn. It also reports that commenters identified the image as old, but the person who posted it did not remove it. To investigate the image’s history, the review says it used Google reverse-image search. That search found the photo circulating on social media as far back as 2015. A Friends of RSS account had also shared it in 2018, describing RSS volunteers assisting Railway Protection Force personnel during a train accident, but without specifying when or where the photo was taken. The review then reports finding the image on the RSS website with a more specific attribution: it was said to show RSS volunteers helping with rescue work after a 2015 train accident at Anekal, Karnataka. This earlier provenance contradicts the claim that the photo depicts the 2023 Odisha rescue operation. The review’s conclusion is about the photo’s misattribution; it separately notes that claims RSS volunteers participated in the Odisha rescue could be true, but that possibility does not establish that this particular image shows it.

YouturnDisasters & emergencies

ஒடிசா பாலாசோர் இரயில் விபத்து களத்தில் RSS ஸ்வயம்சேவகர்கள். அப்பகுதி RSS மாவட்ட இணை அமைப்பாளர் திரு.விஷ்ணு தலைமையில் 25 ஸ்வயம்சேவகர்கள் நிவாரணப்பணியில் ஈடுபட்டு வருகின்றனர். கோரமண்டல் இரயிலில் பயணித்தவர்கள் உறவினர் அவசர தகவலுக்கு திரு.விஷ்ணுவை அனுகவும் – 94398 61204. Also, Railway Emergency Control Room Number of Balasore – 06782262286 !

Publisher’s rating: Misleading