Two old videos showing visuals of earthquake tremors and destruction of buildings are circulating on social media falsely linking them to quake-hit Tajikistan. The same videos were also included in news reports by DNA and Moneycontrol as scenes of Tajikistan earthquake.
BOOM found that the videos have been on the internet much before than the earthquake hit Tajikistan.
An earthquake of 6.8 magnitude jolted the eastern part of Tajikistan on February 23 morning. The tremors were reportedly felt in several areas but did not cause much damage or injuries, reported Associated Press. Tajik officials also denied any disturbance to the country's Sarez Lake that carries the potential to flood several countries.
Video 1
DNA tweeted the video with a caption saying, "Magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes Tajikistan, near border with China".
Click here to view the tweet.
Moneycontrol also reported the same video claiming it to be of a recent scene from Tajikistan.
Read the report here.
Video 2
Kenya-based news organisation K24 TV shared another video of earthquake causing destructions as Tajikistan.
The outlet tweeted the video with the caption, "Magnitude 7.2 earthquake strikes Tajikistan, near border with China".
Click here to view the tweet.
Other Twitter users also shared the video as a footage from quake-hit Tajikistan.
Fact Check
BOOM found the visuals are unrelated to recent quake of Tajikistan. The videos show old incidents that took place in Japan and Nepal.
Video From Japan
We performed a reverse image search on Yandex on one of the viral video's keyframes and found the same video was tweeted in Japanese on February 13, 2021.
The translated caption in English reads as, "The earthquake was huge, so for some reason I took a video reflexively, but somehow it's awesome".
Click here to view the tweet.
Another reverse image search on the Russian search engine led us to a Daily Mail news report from February 13, 2021, carrying the same video.
The report states, "A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 struck off the coast of eastern Japan on Saturday, sparking fears of a 'leak' at a nuclear power plant. The epicentre of the earthquake was off the coast of Fukushima prefecture at a depth of 60 km (36 miles) and triggered widespread blackouts, the Japan Meteorological Agency said." BOOM however was not independently able to verify the video's location.
Video From Nepal
We broke the video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search on it. The search showed us that the video was uploaded on a YouTube channel on May 31, 2022, mentioning it to be of a CCTV footage from Kathmandu's Tripureshwor Chowk area in Nepal.
Taking a cue, we ran a related keyword search and found the same video on Nepali media outlet Setopati's YouTube channel uploaded on June 02, 2015.
The video is described as, "CCTV Footage live in Tripureshwor. Nepal earthquake-2015."
We also found a video report from Euronews' official YouTube channel from April 30, 2015, capturing the earthquake incident from a different angle.
The description of the video says, "CCTV footage released on April 30 shows the impact of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake on a busy roundabout in the south of Kathmandu. The footage shows a roundabout at Tripureshwor Chowk.. The real force of the shock can be seen when a monument on the roundabout collapses as the quake hits."
A The Guardian report from April 30, 2015, states, "CCTV footage from Kathmandu shows the moment the 7.9 magnitude earthquake strikes, causing traffic to stop and people to panic on a busy street. As the quake subsides, a building collapses into the road, striking several people and vehicles as it hits the ground. The death toll across Nepal has exceeded 5,000".
Further, BOOM located the crossing of Tripureshwor, Kathmandu, on Google Earth's streetview and was able to confirm that the video is from the same area.
