Old photos of damaged buildings falsely shared as '2023 earthquake in Pakistan'
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on April 30, 2023 at 05:43
- 3 min read
- By AFP Pakistan
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The photo collage of damaged houses was shared in this tweet on March 21, 2023. It has been retweeted more than 150 times.
The Urdu-language tweet translates to English as: "There are reports of 45 to 50 people injured in the earthquake in Shangla Swat."
Shangla refers to a scenic hill resort in Swat Valley, situated in the northwestern Pakistani region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which neighbours Afghanistan (archived link).
The photos circulated online after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Pakistan and Afghanistan on March 21, 2023, killing at least 13 people, AFP reported (archived link).
All or some of the photos were also shared here, here, and here on Facebook; and here, here and here on Twitter in the same false context.
A reverse image found the photos were taken from a 2019 earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and from a January 2020 earthquake in the eastern Turkish province of Elazig.
On September 24, 2019 an earthquake killed 38 people and injured hundreds in the city of Mirpur in northeast Pakistan, AFP reported (archived link).
The photo of a boy dressed in blue standing on the rubble of a house was captured by AFP photographer Aamir Qureshi on September 24, 2019, as shown here (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo shared in false posts (left) and the original AFP photo (right):
Another photo showing two men looking at a damaged house was also shot by Qureshi on the outskirts of Mirpur on September 24, 2019, as shown here (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo shared in the false posts (left) and the original AFP photo (right):
The photo showing four men looking at another damaged house behind a slanting pole was shot by Qureshi at the same location on the same day, as shown here (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo shared in the false posts (left) and the original AFP photo (right):
The top right photo in the misleading posts shows the aftermath of an earthquake in the eastern Turkish province of Elazig in January 2020.
The photo -- captured by AFP's Ilyas Akengin -- shows Turkish officials and police working at the scene of a flattened building, as shown here (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo shared in the false posts (left) and the original AFP photo (right):
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