Old video from Indonesia passed off as visuals of recent Papua New Guinea quake

The video shows the damage caused by an earthquake that hit Palu city in Central Sulawesi province of Indonesia in 2018.

By Md Mahfooz Alam  Published on  3 April 2023 12:22 PM GMT
Old video from Indonesia passed off as visuals of recent Papua New Guinea quake

(Image courtesy: Twitter/@DeshmukhHarish9)

A video showing massive cracks in the road is being shared with the claim that it shows visuals of the recent earthquake that hit Papua New Guinea on 3 April.

Journalist Harish Deshmukh of Zee Bihar News shared the video using the hashtag #Papua New Guinea #Earthqauke.

(Image courtesy: Twitter/@DeshmukhHarish9)

Several Twitter and Facebook users also shared the video with the same claim. (Click here and here to view more posts.)

Fact Check

The video shows the damage caused by an earthquake that hit Palu city in Central Sulawesi province of Indonesia in 2018.

Using the InVID chrome extension, we extracted the keyframes of the video and performed a reverse image search which led us to the same video published by a YouTube channel on 10 October 2018. According to the Indonesian caption, the video shows seconds of the earthquake in front of the Sigi Palu gas station, which hit on 28 September 2018.

Taking this as a cue, we ran a keyword search and found the same video published by Getty Images on 10 October 2018. It said the video shows the destruction caused by the earthquake in Palu city of Central Sulawesi province. It also mentioned that a 7.4-magnitude earthquake had struck Sulawesi Island triggering a tsunami in Donggala and Palu cities in Indonesia on 28 September 2018.

(Image courtesy: Getty Images)

The video has been on the internet since 2018. Hence, we conclude that it does not show visuals of the recent earthquake that hit Papua New Guinea on 3 April.

Claim Review:The video shows the recent earthquake that hit Papua New Guinea.
Claimed By:Social Media users, Journalist Harish Deshmukh
Claim Reviewed By:NewsMeter
Claim Source:Twitter, Facebook
Claim Fact Check:Misleading
Next Story