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
Passenger bus swept away after a flash flood in Tinau River, Butwal.
Fact
Viral video shows an old video of a tourist bus being swept away by a surging river in Manali.
A video allegedly showing a bus being swept away by a raging river after a flash flood in Tinau River of Butwal in Rupandehi district is going viral.
The claim surfaces even as the monsoon rains have arrived in eastern Nepal and are gradually moving towards the western region of the country.
TikTok user @surojofically posted a video showing a bus tumbling into a raging river. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Bus swept away by Tinahu River in Butwal. Save Butwal and Pray for Butwal.” Voiceover accompanying the video, along with the sound of a river, says, “See the Tinau River has been flooding and people from far and wide have come to see. Houses in the settlement across the river have been inundated and the situation is dangerous today for the inhabitants of Butwal.”
The video posted on June 16 has garnered 7351 likes and 796 users have shared it until the time of publishing this article.The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker took a key frame from the viral video and conducted a reverse search on it. The search threw up several results resembling the frame from the viral video.
On checking a video, dated September 25, 2018, published on the Weather Channel, we found that the video frame almost exactly matched the viral video. The video caption noted that an empty tourist bus was washed away following heavy rain and flash flooding in Manali, Himachal Pradesh in September2018.
Further, we ran a search on Google by using the clues obtained so far and found several video reports (See here, here and here) matching the viral video. On checking a news video, dated September 24, 2018, published on the YouTube channel of NDTV, we found that the video clip from 1.35-minute onwards exactly matched the viral video. The video narration and the description clearly stated that the clip showed a tourist bus being washed away into a flooded river in Manali of Himachal Pradesh, India.
Thus, our findings clearly indicate that the viral video from September 2018 showed a tourist bus being swept away by a flooding river in Himachal, India.
Conclusion
No, the viral video claiming to show the flooding Tinau River engulfing a passenger in Butwal is misleading. The old viral video is from Manali of Himachal Pradesh in India.
Result: False
Sources
The Weather Channel, Sept 25, 2018
NDTV /YouTube, Sept 24, 2018
India Today, Sept 25, 2018
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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.
