Video shows river overflowing in Turkey, not Libya flooding

This article is more than one year old.
Published on October 3, 2023 at 09:03
Updated on October 3, 2023 at 09:43
3 min read
By AFP Morocco, AFP Australia
Translation and adaptation Kate TAN

As devastating floods swept Libya in September 2023, social media users shared old footage of a river overflowing in Turkey that they falsely linked to the crisis. AFP geolocated the video to Turkey's Kastamonu province on the Black Sea, which was hit by deadly floods in August 2021.

"Flash flood in Libya. Watch until the end to see the damage," says a Facebook post from September 15 that attracted more than 8,000 views before it was deleted.

The video shows a torrent of muddy water gushing down a river, submerging streets and appearing to wash away a bridge.

Screenshot of the false post, captured on September 26, 2023.

The video circulated in similar posts around the world including in Britain and Pakistan -- and has been debunked by AFP in Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic. It also spread on TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter.

A huge flood devastated Libya's eastern city of Derna in September, killing at least 3,893 people according to the latest toll announced by the eastern authorities.

International aid groups have said 10,000 or more people may be missing.

However, the viral video shows flooding in Turkey two years before the Libya crisis.

A Google reverse image search found the video posted on YouTube on August 18, 2021 (archived link).

The video is titled "Catastrophic flood in Bozkurt, Turkey (2021)" and is credited to Murat Özer.

Özer posted the video on Instagram, saying in the caption that it was filmed on August 11, 2021 (archived link).

Screenshot of the video posted on Instagram by Murat Özer

The screenshot comparison below shows the video shared in false posts (left) and Özer's Instagram video (right), with corresponding features highlighted by AFP.

Screenshot comparison of the video shared in false posts (left) and Özer's Instagram video (right)

An AFP journalist in Istanbul confirmed people in the video were speaking Turkish.

"The bridge collapsed!" a man is heard saying.

Meanwhile, Murat Özer told AFP that he filmed the video in Bozkurt in Turkey's Kastamonu province, which lies on the Black Sea.

AFP found the scene of the video on Google Street View.

Screenshot comparison of Özer's Instagram video (left) and its corresponding Google Street View (right)

Seventy-seven people were killed after flash floods hit Black Sea regions in August 2021, AFP reported (archived link).

The devastation across Turkey's northern regions came just as the country was gaining control over hundreds of wildfires that killed eight people and destroyed swathes of forest along its scenic southern coast.

October 3, 2023 Added AFP Australia byline

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