Fact Check: Old video of petrol bunk getting damaged shared as Cyclone Biparjoy footage

Hyderabad: A video showing an India Oil fuel station ravaged by a fierce wind is doing rounds with the claim that it shows the intensity of damage caused by Cyclone Biparjoy in Gujarat.

A Twitter handle shared the video with the caption, “Recent visuals from Dwarka. #CycloneBiparjoyUpdate #CycloneBiparjoy #CycloneAlert #Cyclone #BiparjoyCyclone #Biporjoy #Gujaratcyclone #Gujarat #Maharashtra.”

According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall in coastal areas of Gujarat on Thursday evening. It has moved from sea to land towards Sauarashtra-Kutch, and heavy rains are expected in Rajasthan on Friday.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video has been on the internet since May 2019, when Cyclone Fani hit Odisha. On performing a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found the video on several YouTube channels published in 2019. They attributed the incident to Cyclone Fani, which hit Odisha in 2019. (Click here, here and here to see the video.)

We also found the video published on Daily Motion by an account named Newsflare on May 3, 2019, titled “Dramatic moment Indian petrol station is engulfed in the dust by cyclone winds.” The description said that the high winds damaged the petrol station as Cyclone Fani had ravaged the east coast of India.

A Daily Mail report from 2019 featuring the video said that Cyclone Fani had damaged a petrol bunk in India. However, it did not mention the location of the video.

News18, in a report in 2019, published eight videos, including the petrol station video being shared on social media now. It was about Cyclone Fani; however, this report too did not mention the location of the petrol bunk.

NewsMeter could not independently verify the exact location of the video. However, we found that the video has been on the Internet since at least 2019. Hence, we conclude that an old viral video has been falsely linked to Cyclone Biparjoy.