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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 of people trapped under an avalanche in Amaranth

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video of people being helped out from under snow, said to show hundreds of pilgrims trapped during the Amarnath Yatra. FACTLY reports that the video instead shows an avalanche incident at Sikkim’s Nathula Pass. Its conclusion is about where the footage came from, not whether the video depicts people caught in snow.

Annir InitiativeDisasters & emergencies

إحتراق حافلة ركاب لطلاب كانو في رحلة مدرسية وفاة أكثر من 45 طالبا ترهونة

Publisher’s rating: مضلل

The claim circulating on Facebook said that a passenger bus carrying students on a school trip had caught fire in Tarhuna, with more than 45 students dead. The review reports that it traced the claim to a Facebook post published on 28 April 2023 at 7:48 p.m. Libya time. The post had attracted about 17,500 reactions and 12,900 comments by the time the review examined it. These figures describe the post’s reach, not evidence that the reported deaths occurred. (S1: “انتشر خبر مضلل على موقع التواصل الاجتماعي فيسبوك مفاده احتراق حافلة ركاب لطلاب كانوا في رحلة مدرسية في مدينة ترهونة.”; “نٌشر في 28 أبريل 2023 على تمام الساعة 7:48 مساءً بتوقيت ليبيا”; “حصد الادعاء نحو 17.5 ألف تفاعل و 12.9 ألف تعليق”) To check the claim, the investigators used keyword searches and found the same image in a 28 April 2023 report by the Moroccan news site اليوم 24. That report placed the bus fire at the bends of the Bouizakarne road in Morocco, where a fire broke out in the engine of a passenger bus. The review says the report stated that the incident caused no loss of life. This identifies a different location and outcome from the Tarhuna post’s description. (S1: “قادنا البحث بالكلمات المفتاحية إلى الصورة ذاتها منشورة بتاريخ 28 أبريل 2023، على موقع اليوم 24 الإخباري”; “حريق مهول شب بمحرك حافلة لنقل المسافرين بمنعرجات طريق بويزكارن بالمغرب.”; “لم يخلف الحادث أية خسائر في الأرواح”) The review also found a video of the incident, described as footage shared by eyewitnesses on Facebook on 28 April. It concluded that the post used an image out of context to circulate false information. The excerpt does not provide the original image file, a link to the Facebook video, or details of any independent confirmation beyond the cited news report and video; the conclusion here is therefore limited to the evidence and checks the review describes. (S1: “عثرنا على مقطع فيديو متداول من شهود عيان على منصة فيسبوك بتاريخ 28 أبريل 2023 يوثق الحادثة.”; “لأنه استخدم صورًا في غير سياقها من أجل تداول معلومة غير صحيحة..”)

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaDisasters & emergencies

ලංකාවේ වයඹ පළාතේ වූ පිපිරීමක් ද?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review examines a Hiru News social-media post whose headline, “පිරිසක් මරා වයඹ පුපුරයි” (“A group killed; the North West explodes”), did not identify a country. The article says the linked news story had since been removed, and that the wording led readers to understand the explosion as having happened in Sri Lanka’s North Western Province. The question, therefore, is whether the event implied by the post actually occurred in that province—not whether an explosion happened somewhere in the region. To check the implication, the publisher says it first looked for reports in mainstream media of an explosion in Sri Lanka’s North Western Province on April 25 and found none. It then ran a reverse-image search on the photograph accompanying the post. That search connected the image to an explosion at a police-station munitions store in Kabal, in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, on April 24. The review describes the photograph as showing security personnel gathered at the site after the blast. The review reports that Pakistani police initially said the cause was unclear: investigators were considering whether old ammunition had detonated or whether the incident was an attack. It also relays an updated death toll of 17 and more than 50 injured, with most of those killed described as police counterterrorism officers. Its conclusion is that the social-media presentation omitted the location and thereby made a Pakistani explosion appear to be a Sri Lankan one. The evidence in the excerpt supports that conclusion about the post’s implication; it does not establish that no unrelated explosion ever occurred anywhere in the province.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturDisasters & emergencies

Im Archiv des spanischen Gesundheitsministeriums, wo Dokumente zur Impfpolitik gesammelt werden, ist ein Feuer ausgebrochen.

Publisher’s rating: Das Feuer hat nicht im spanischen Gesundheitsministerium gewütet, sondern Schäden im benachbarten Wirtschafts- und Sozialausschuss angerichtet. Räumlichkeiten des Ministeriums waren nach dessen Angaben nicht von dem Brand betroffen.

The claim concerns a fire in Madrid that supposedly burned the Spanish Health Ministry’s archive of records on vaccination policy. The investigation identifies the fire as having occurred not in the ministry, but at the neighboring Economic and Social Council (CES), at Calle de las Huertas 73. The ministry and CES are separate institutions, although the proximity explains why ministry staff temporarily left their workplaces. The ministry’s press office told dpa that there had been no fire in its premises.