Fact Check: Old video misrepresented as visuals from Wayanad landslide
The video in question is a CCTV recording with a visible date of June 16, 2024, which does not match the recent landslides in Wayanad.
By Sibahathulla Sakib Published on 31 July 2024 10:31 AM GMT
Claim: The timelapse video depicts a house and the surrounding land being submerged by water as a result of the Wayanad landslide.
Fact: This claim is false. The video has been on the internet since at least June 2024. Landslides struck Kerala's Wayanad on July 30.
Hyderabad: Hyderabad: Social media users are sharing a video of heavy water flow claiming it is from landslide-hit Wayanad. The video was circulated after massive landslides in Keralaās Wayanad left 143 people dead and 186 others injured.
An X user shared the video with the text: āTerrific footage in #wayanad, Kerala. #WayanadLandslide #WayanadDisasterā
Similar posts can be seen here and here.
Fact Check:
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. This video is over a month old and not from Keralaās Wayanad.
The video in question is a CCTV recording with a visible date of June 16, 2024, which does not match the recent landslides in Wayanad. As per reports, landslides struck Kerala's Wayanad on July 30.
A reverse image search of the videoās keyframes led us to the same clip posted on X by The Epoch Times on June 24, 2024. According to this post, the video was from a village in Pingyuan County in the Shandong province of China.
The caption reads: āOn June 16, 2024, the Huangtian Reservoir in Huangtian Village, Pingyuan County, Meizhou City, suddenly released floodwaters. Surveillance cameras captured the process of a yard in Zhangyan Village, Pingyuan County, being flooded, showing that the local water level rose by two meters in three hours. The authorities announced that as of 15:00 on June 21, the heavy rainfall disaster in Pingyuan County, Meizhou City, caused a total of 38 deaths and 2 people missing.ā (Translated from Mandarin)
We also found a report by Mediaset Infinity from June 26 titled āChina, the Timelapse of the Flood: This Is How the House Ends Up Submerged,ā which featured the same video.
A keyword search also uncovered a post by NBC News from June 21 titled āHistoric Flooding in Southern China Kills 47, With More Floods Feared.ā
While this report did not contain the same video, it confirmed that at least 47 people died in southern Chinaās Guangdong province due to severe flooding and landslides, with warnings of more extreme weather to come.
Hence, the claim is false. The viral video claiming to show the Wayanad landslide has been on the internet since at least June this year. According to reports from June, the video is from Meizhou City in eastern Guangdong province, China.
