Russian flood video falsely shared as 'flooding in northern Thailand'

Published on September 4, 2024 at 08:30
Updated on September 4, 2024 at 09:07
3 min read
By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand

As flash floods inundated several provinces in Thailand, a video showing submerged houses in Russia was widely shared by social media users, who falsely claimed it depicted a northern Thai province after an upstream dam in China burst. The video was filmed in a Russian village in April 2024. The Thai government said reports of a Chinese dam collapsing in northern Thailand in August 2024 were "fake news".

"Breaking.. A Chinese dam burst and caused massive flooding of a housing development in Chiang Rai province," read the caption of this TikTok video posted on August 27, 2024.

The nine-second clip -- showing a row of roofs barely peeking above floodwater -- had garnered more than 599,000 views as of September 4, 2024.

Screenshot of the false TikTok post, taken September 3, 2024

Similar false Thai-language posts were shared on various platforms including here and here.

The same video was also misleadingly shared by Bangladeshi users here and here, as floods in South Asia affected millions (archived link).

While the northern part of Thailand was struck by heavy seasonal flooding at the end of August, a reverse image search revealed the video shows a village in Russia (archived link).

Months-old Russian video

A reverse image search using Yandex found a YouTube video uploaded on April 14, 2024 that shows a similar scene (archived link).

Part of the Russian-language title from the video translated as "This is what is happening in our village of Ivanovka, houses are underwater."

At the beginning of the video, someone speaking Russian says: "Village Ivanovka. 12 April. Residential complex in the Urals."

Below is a screenshot comparison between the false TikTok post (left) and the earlier YouTube video (right):

Screenshot comparison between the false TikTok post (left) and the YouTube video posted (right)

In an April 12 report, the BBC said: "Floods in the Russian city of Orenburg have raised water levels to two metres above critical, leaving just the roofs of some houses showing" (archived link).

The lead photo shows submerged Russian houses with roofs that resemble those depicted in the video falsely shared in Thailand.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the Thai video (left) and the BBC headline on April 12, 2024 (right):

Screenshot comparison between the viral video (left) and the BBC headline on April 12, 2024 (right)

The same video was previously falsely attributed to floods in several countries, including Keyna, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. It has been debunked by fact-checkers around the world including here, here and here (archived links here, here and here).

'No dam breach'

There have been no official reports about a dam bursting in China in August 2024.

In July 2024, a dam breach in central China's Hunan province triggered floods and forced nearly 6,000 people to evacuate from nearby areas, according to state media cited by AFP at the time, but no casualties were immediately reported (archived link).

Thailand's government-run Anti-Fake News Center also issued a statement on August 31 denying the claim that a collapsed dam in China had caused flooding in Thailand (archived link).

"The Office of the National Water Resources has investigated the claim and confirmed that such claim is not true. Currently, there is no news report on the Chinese dam bursting whatsoever."

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