Due to the severe flooding in Bangladesh, 54 people died so far according to reports. On this backdrop, a video of a flooded bridge is going viral on social media claiming it to be from Bangladesh.
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However, as we investigated, we came to know that the viral video was old and not from Bangladesh. Here’s the fact check.
Fact Check
We started our investigation by taking some screenshots from the viral video and conducting a reverse image search. As a result, we found the video on Pinterest. In the comment section of the video, one user wrote that the video is from Himachal Pradesh and another user wrote that it’s Swat from Pakistan.
Taking this clue, we conducted a keyword search but couldn’t find any reliable source confirming it to be from Himachal Pradesh.
Now, we tried to find out whether the video was from Pakistan or not. Conducting a relevant keyword search we found a video on YouTube uploaded on 31 August 2022. The caption said it was from the Swat floods in 2022. The video showed the before and after flood footage of the bridge that was in the viral video.
We took a screenshot of the before-flood footage in the video and conducted a reverse image search. As a result, we came across a tweet in which a video similar to the before-flood footage of the YouTube video could be seen. According to the caption of the tweet, it was Madyan, Swat Valley.
Moving forward, we found a news report in Business Insider published on 29 August 2022. The headline of the report read, “Videos show devastating floods in Pakistan that have swept whole buildings away and killed over 1,000 people since June”. The report contained an image similar to the screenshots from the viral video.
Mentioning the source of the image, the report read, “Pakistan climate minister Sherry Rehman shared footage of flooding in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region Saturday”.
Taking this clue, we searched for the tweet from Sherry Rahman and found the tweet on her official X handle. On 27 August 2023, she tweeted, “Madyan bridge, KP. Communications ministry informs us that it was built 5 metres above the level of the bridge that went down in the 2010 superflood. Now the water is inundating the bridge. They thought they were building back better by raising it much higher. #PakistanFloods”
The bridge shown in the video was the same as the viral video, but it was from a different angle. The comparison between the two can be seen below.
We geolocated the Madyan Bridge in Swat Valley, Pakistan which made it clear that the bridge in the viral video is from Madyan, Swat Valley, Pakistan.
The comparison between the screenshot from the viral video and the Google Maps image can be seen below.
From this, it’s clear that the viral video is from Madyan, Swat Valley Pakistan.
Conclusion
From our investigation, we can say that the claim is false. The viral video is not from Bangladesh. The video is old and from Madyan, Swat Valley Pakistan.
Title:Old Video From Pakistan Floods Is Going Viral As The Bangladesh Floods.
Fact Check By: Debanjana BaishyaResult: False
