AI-generated clip, unrelated footage falsely shared as Pakistan monsoon

"Deadly cloudburst in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Heavy loss of lives. A sudden and devastating cloudburst in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has taken many precious lives," reads the description of a TikTok video shared August 17, 2025, which racked up more than 926,000 views.

Landslides caused by torrential rains and flash floods killed more than 450 people in the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province during Pakistan's monsoon season, which began in June (archived here). 

"How does a cloud burst?" reads Urdu-language sticker text on the video, which is a compilation of three clips showing an extreme downpour in a mountain area, floodwaters engulfing a town and a thick fog covering trees along the street. 

A male voice speaking in Urdu explains the science behind a cloudburst formation before going on to say the phenomenon "swept away entire villages" in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

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Screenshot of the false TikTok post captured August 28, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The same video spread on YouTube. The first clip of intense rainfall also surfaced alongside claims that it showed a cloudburst in Buner, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 

However, the compilation is unrelated to monsoon floods in the northwestern province.

A reverse image search using keyframes from the clip of the downpour led to a Facebook post uploaded August 16, 2025 (archived here). It features a watermark reading "Veo", indicating it was created using an AI video generation model developed by Google DeepMind (archived here).

The Facebook user confirmed to AFP that the video was artificially generated using Veo3.

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Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (L) and the Facebook video from August 16, 2025, with the Veo watermark circled by AFP

The second clip of raging floodwaters flowing into an inhabited valley was previously misrepresented online as the aftermath of a cloudburst in the Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The video actually shows flash floods in neighbouring India's Dharali village in Uttarkashi district.

The last clip of fog first spread in an August 12, 2025 Facebook post that says it was shot in Murree, a city in Pakistan's central Punjab province (archived here). 

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Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and the video posted by Murree Times

Abdullah Abbasi, a local journalist who runs the account that posted it, told AFP the video he filmed is "not a cloud burst. It is fog". 

"In Murree, the weather is often like this ... It’s nothing unusual," he said. 

Abbasi said he edited the original footage into a time-lapse video. He provided the original version to AFP, which showed no rain or cloudburst. 

AFP has fact-checked other false claims about the monsoon rains affecting South Asia.