A video showing a man dive from the terrace of a building into a water-logged street in Indore, Madhya Pradesh is being shared online as an incident that took place in Karachi, Pakistan.
News outlets Times of India and News18 also aired the video with the same false claim. News18 India later pulled down the clip after being called out by social media users.
The clip is viral at a time when floods have ravaged several parts of Pakistan and particularly Karachi. Pakistan is witnessing its worst rainfalls in 89 years,
BBC reported.
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Times of India's Facebook page shared the video with a caption 'Karachi Rains: When roads became diving pools for citizens. Several such videos of major water-logging from the capital city are being shared on social media'. (Click here to view an archive)
The same video was also aired by News 18 claiming it to be from Karachi, Pakistan. While the video is not present on the YouTube channel of News 18 anymore, BOOM found a tweet with a recording of the channel.
We also found other Facebook posts (archive) which have shared the clip with the same misleading claim.
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Fact Check
BOOM found a tweet of one Shahnawaz Ansari which had the same video.
The tweet, in Hindi, translates to 'It's a three day old video from Indore wherein an acquaintance's friend 'Bhura Bhai' is shown jumping into the water from the terrace. Country's 'Godi Media' News 18 India aired bhura Bhai's video calling it to be from Karachi, Pakistan'.
The tweet has a video which shows the video being aired on News 18 India and the anchor can be heard saying: Heavy rains in Karachi have brought life to a standstill and roads have turned into swimming pools. A man jumped into the water from the fourth floor of his apartment.
Meanwhile, Hindi tickers on the screen read 'Stunning stunt during heavy rains', 'jumped from fourth floor of a building', 'roads turn into ponds in Karachi', and 'Pakistan government has been exposed'.
BOOM reached out to Ansari who identified the man in the video as Zafar alias 'Bhura Bhai', a resident of Indore.
Ansari also provided us a video of Zafar wherein the latter can be seen clarifying that the video was recorded in Indore.
Zafar states the following in the video: 'Greetings. My name is Zafar Ahmad Khan aka Bhura Bhai. I live in Sadar Market, Indore. The area has been waterlogged and we were carrying out rescue operations helping people. After one such rescue operation, I dived into the water and the video became viral. It was shared in the name of Karachi, Pakistan. India TV aired it with fake claims'.
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