False

Is it true that millions of cockroaches have recently emerged from the ground in Mecca?

In 2023, there was no recent news of a cockroach attack in Mecca. An old video of a locust infestation in 2019 was posted as a recent cockroach invasion in Mecca.

A video has gone viral on social media showing cockroaches attacking Muslims in Mecca. The Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia’s historic city of Mecca has been bombarded by cockroaches.

A video has been shared showing a large number of insects in a place where believers pray.The caption of the post states “Today in Mecca, a flash flood fell on the tomb of Muhammad on the millions of people who came to celebrate Ramadan. A minute after the rain stopped, millions of cockroaches came out from under the ground, so the prayer was stopped and everyone ran away.”

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The caption reads on Twitter “Rehmat in #ramdan In Mecca, millions of cockroaches came out from under the ground, so the prayer was stopped and everyone ran away. This is Karma for all the evil and suffering they are causing the world”.

Fact Check-

We started our investigation on Google reverse image search with the video’s key frames. The video was then discovered to have been posted widely on social media. However, no news or information concerning the recent cockroach attack has been published by the Saudi media, the Saudi government, or the administration of the Mecca Masjid.

Later we searched on Google using some key words like Mecca and cockroach. Then, in 2019 and 20, there were reports that there was a large-scale locust attack in Mecca. In further search we found a media report on Newsweek published on 1 November 2019 with the caption, “Mecca’s Grand Mosque, the World’s Holiest Muslim Site, Is under Attack by Locusts.”

express.co.uk

According to geo.tv reports “Swarms of desert locusts invaded the holy city of Makkah, while millions of them landed on Makkah Tower’s clock to completely hide it from people’s view. The Saudi Environment Department took timely action and immediately destroyed the locusts”.

We also found a tweet on January 8, 2019 on behalf of Makkah Municipality. It included photographs of the removal of locusts from the Great Mosque of Mecca.

We discovered news and videos indicating that this occurred in 2019. According to sources, these are not cockroaches, but black locusts. We also came across a fact check article published on an Islam related website regarding this video. It has been stated that this information is wrong with explanations.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. The incident is not of recent times, but is of four years ago. Also the attack was not of cockroaches but was of locusts.