Building collapse video from Saudi Arabia, not Turkey

This article is more than one year old.
Published on February 8, 2023 at 18:54
4 min read
By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA

Social media users are claiming a video of a multi-story building collapsing shows destruction from an earthquake that ripped through Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023. This is false; the video was captured in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and has circulated online since at least January.

"God Help #Turkey," says one February 6 tweet sharing the video, viewed more than 240,000 times.

Other posts, some sporting the same caption, cropped up across Twitter and other platforms, such as TikTok and Facebook. The clip spread in various countries and languages.

Screenshot from Twitter taken February 7, 2023

Screenshot from Twitter taken February 7, 2023

The posts come as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared a state of emergency and rescuers race to find survivors of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which leveled buildings and killed at least 11,200 people in the country and neighboring Syria.

But the video does not show a building crumbling as a result of the disaster or its aftershocks. It depicts an unrelated scene in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's second most-populous city.

Brecht Castel, a journalist for the Belgian magazine Knack, tweeted a call for information about the clip's origins on February 6. In response, social media users pointed to matching footage posted to TikTok and YouTube in January 2023, weeks before the earthquake hit Turkey.

Portuguese Twitter user Luis Galrao linked to a driver's dashcam video that appears to show the same building in April 2022, before its collapse.

Screenshot of a false tweet taken February 7, 2023, with elements outlined by AFP

Screenshot taken February 7, 2023 of dashcam footage on YouTube, with elements outlined by AFP

The descriptions of those videos indicate the building was located on Old Makkah Road in Jeddah.

Geolocating the building

Using the location information shared online, AFP found a 2017 Google Maps Street View capture of a building whose shape and layout resemble those seen in the social media posts. The structure's surroundings also appear to match those in the dashcam footage.

Screenshot taken February 7, 2023 of a 2017 Google Maps Street View image, with elements outlined by AFP

Screenshot taken February 7, 2023 of dashcam footage on YouTube, with elements outlined by AFP

The Google Street View shows signage on the building for Banque Saudi Fransi and other businesses. Google reviews for the Saudi bank at that location include photos that reveal more similarities to the video shared online.

Screenshot of a false tweet taken February 7, 2023, with elements outlined by AFP

Screenshot of a photo from Google Maps taken February 7, 2023, with elements outlined by AFP

Another sign the clip does not show the earthquake in Turkey: The cars and their license plates appear to show Arabic script.

Potential demolition

The cause of the collapse pictured in the video is unclear. But the Saudi government has in recent months demolished structures as part of a massive clearance and construction project; AFP captured footage of wreckage across the city in April 2022.

Jack Moehle, a professor of structural engineering at the University of California-Berkeley, reviewed the video for AFP. He said that while he cannot definitively rule out earthquake shock waves, there are signs consistent with a more controlled demolition.

"It looks like it could be a well-executed demolition during an otherwise quiet period," Moehle said in an email. "The central part is brought down first, which then drags the perimeter portions into the center, and the traffic pattern does not resemble traffic during or shortly after a devastating earthquake."

AFP has debunked other misrepresented visuals shared after the earthquake in Turkey here, here and here.

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