Fact Check: Video of camels being swept away in Saudi Arabia floods resurfaced after Dubai rains

Hyderabad: On April 15, 2024, Dubai experienced an unusually heavy bout of rain, causing significant disruptions across the city. The rainstorm, which lasted for several hours, led to flooded streets, traffic jams, flight delays, the shutting of schools and much worse. Social media platforms were flooded with videos and images showing waterlogging, submerged vehicles, and challenges faced by residents.

One such video showing a group of camels being swept away during a storm is being widely circulated on Threads with the claim that it shows the plight of poor camels during the storm in Dubai.

The layered caption of the video reads, “The other side of Dubai. The desert. Animals in flood.”

The same video is being shared on Facebook and X accounts as well. Click here, here and here for more posts.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false as the viral visuals are old and unrelated to Dubai storms.

We started our investigation by running the keyframes from the viral video through a reverse image search and found the video uploaded on a YouTube channel called Northeast Live. The video was uploaded five years ago on November 15, 2018, titled ‘Flash flood claims 30 lives in Saudi Arabia.’

Taking this as a cue, we ran a keyword search, which led us to media reports carrying screenshots from the viral video uploaded on multiple international media organizations such as Middle East Monitor and La Razon dated November 20, 2018.

According to the report by La Razon, “The unprecedented storms hit Saudi Arabia hard over the weekend, where in just two days the equivalent of six years of precipitation has fallen, an effect that experts have attributed to climate change.”

The same video was reported in a video report by Bit Chute in 2018 attributed to a flood in Saudi Arabia.

We also spotted a media report by a Malayalam media outlet Malayalam News Daily carrying the same visuals stating that the video is from Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Moreover, we found the visuals uploaded by social media users on Facebook and Instagram in October 2018.

Hence, it is evident that the viral video is old and unrelated to the Dubai storm in 2024.