Fact Check: Video of an Egyptian sandstorm falsely shared as Cyclone Biparjoy

Hyderabad: Several social media users have tweeted a video claiming that the massive storm in the video, approaching from the sea, is Cyclone Biparjoy approaching the coasts of Gujarat and Pakistan’s Karachi. The video features a huge storm engulfing a cargo ship.

The video is going viral in the backdrop of The India Meteorological Department (IMD) announcing a red alert as Cyclone Biparjoy makes landfall on the western coast of the Indian subcontinent.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false as the viral video is of a sandstorm in Egypt’s Suez Canal and not Cyclone Biparjoy.

On performing a reverse image search, we found the exact video shared by a YouTube channel called Marineinsight as YouTube Shorts dated June 3, 2023. The video’s title described the visuals as a sandstorm at the Suez Canal in Egypt.

The BBC posted the same video on their official Twitter handle as well. Taking a cue from this, we performed a keyword search that led us to a report by the BBC. The report titled ‘Huge sandstorm sweeps across Suez Canal in Egypt’ has the same video of the sandstorm but from a different angle, dated June 2 2023.

The same visuals were also reported by Times Now as a sandstorm at the Suez Canal, Egypt that took place on June 1 2023.

Similar visuals can be found on other videos on YouTube as well.

Hence, a sandstorm in Egypt is being passed off as visuals of Cyclone Biparjoy.