Do These Viral Visuals Show The Aftermath Of An Earthquake In Afghanistan? No, Viral Visuals Are Circulated With False Claims

Following a powerful earthquake striking Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan, at least 13 people have been confirmed dead so far. The tremors sent shock waves across several cities in Pakistan and Northern India.

Several images are being circulated across social media with the claim that it shows the aftermath of the quake.

Claim 1:

A set of three viral images shows a huge crack on the road, a man standing in front of a destroyed building, and buildings turned to pieces. The viral set of images is shared with the claim that it shows the destruction in the aftermath of the earthquake in Kashmir.

Fact Check:

Image 1 and 2:

We conducted a reverse image search on the image of the huge crack in the road. This led us to a result on GettyImages captioned, "A news cameraman films a damaged road following an earthquake on the outskirts of Mirpur on September 24, 2019. - At least 19 people have been killed and 300 wounded after a shallow earthquake rattled north-eastern Pakistan, a senior police officer said, with the tremor tearing car-sized cracks into roads and heavily damaging infrastructure."

With regards to the image showing the man standing in the midst of a destroyed building, we came across a report by the Guardian published on September 25, 2019, titled, ‘Pakistan earthquake leaves 19 dead and 300 injured in Kashmir region.’

The report contains the viral image with the caption, "A Pakistani man stands beside a collapsed building following an earthquake on the outskirts of Mirpur. Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images"

Image 3:

We conducted a reverse image search and came across a report by News 18, dated September 25, 2019, titled, Aftermath Photos Show Damages After Earthquake in Pakistan’. The report carried the viral image with the caption, “People walk on a road damaged by a powerful earthquake that struck in Jatlan near Mirpur, in northeast Pakistan.”

Claim 2:

This viral image shows a dilapidated building falling in shambles is being shared by users as the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Kupwara’s Karnah of Kashmir. A few social media users claimed that at least three people were killed in Karnah due to the recent earthquake.

Fact Check:

We conducted a reverse image search and came across a report by NBC News published on February 6, 2023 titled, 'Scenes of grief and destruction after devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria'.

The image in the NBC news report is captioned, "A damaged building leans dangerously in Kahramanmaras, Turkey."

We also found a tweet by Deputy Commissioner of Kupwara published on March 21, 2023, where he shared the viral image. "I am myself in Karnah. There is no loss of any life or property. The News spread on social media platform regarding 3 deaths, is fake, concocted and baseless. Please don't spread such fake news," he wrote in the caption.

Claim 3:

Twitter users shared a video showing a man sitting on a child's chair before narrowly escaping as the floor parts away from below him. The post is captioned, "Another #video showing the moment of yesterday's #earthquake that shook #Pakistan, #Afghanistan, recorded by CCTV."

Fact Check:

We conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral video and came across a post on Facebook published by user Tosbar OPP on September 27, 2022. The viral clip is seen at the 4-second mark in the compilation video.

We came across the same video posted on YouTube on July 8, 2022. The video is titled, 'Man almost falls in sinkhole in dressing room'

In our reverse image search, we came across the same video on Russian website fishki.net in an article published on June 15, 2022. The article read, “An employee at a Chinese construction company decided to take a break and sat on a children’s chair not far from his colleagues. A few seconds later, the floor suddenly collapsed underneath him.”

Conclusion:

We found that the viral visuals are not connected to the earthquake that occured in Afghanistan. The visuals date back to at least an year and depict several incidents of natural disasters that have not occured recently.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

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