Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
A building being swallowed up by the raging Seti River.
TikTok user @prasanto37 posted a video showing a building collapsing due to raging floods in the Seti River. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Seti River dammed after a massive flood in Pokhara, ten people have gone missing.”
The video has gone viral as the floods and landslides triggered by incessant rains have wreaked havoc across the country.
The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Fact
To check the veracity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker took several keyframes from the viral video and ran reverse searches on them. A search led us to a report, dated June 17, 2013, published on NDTV news along with a video compilation. On checking the video, we found that video footage from 0.40-minute to 0.49-minute exactly matched the viral video. The report stated the footage showed the collapse of a building due to floods in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand.
Further, we conducted a search on YouTube by using the clues from the NDTV report, and found a video report, dated June 18, 2013, published on India TV. On checking the special video report, we found that the video footage from 0.55-minute onwards closely resembled the viral clip showing the collapse of a building. The video report plainly stated that the footage showed a building being swallowed up by a raging Bhagirathi River in Uttarakhand, India.
Also Read: Newscheker had previously debunked the video when it went viral in July 2022 with the claim that the video showed a flood in Nepal’s Surkhet district.
Thus, our findings clearly show that the viral clip is from 2013, and the video shows a building on the bank collapsing due to a massive flood in Uttarakhand.
Result: False
Sources
NDTV, June 17, 2024
India TV /YouTube, June 18, 2024
My Republica
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
