Video of train submerged in India's floodwaters is AI-generated

"Train submerged in Ganga River in Patna," reads Hindi-language overlaid text on a clip shared on Instagram on August 21, 2025.

Patna is a city in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.

The video shows several compartments of a train submerged in a surging river while people are stranded at the foot of a bridge pier. Men, some of them with handheld microphones, can be seen standing at the river bank and over the bridge.

Rivers have flooded several cities in Bihar displacing more than 2.5 million people across 10 districts in August (archived link).

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Screenshot of the false Instagram post captured August 27, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The video was shared in similar posts on Facebook and Instagram alongside claims it showed a genuine train accident. 

India has seen several deadly flooding disasters in August in the northern Himalayan region (archived link). 

Powerful torrents driven by intense rain smashed into Chisoti village in Indian-administered Kashmir on August 14, killing at least 65 people and leaving another 33 missing.

Floods on August 5 overwhelmed the Himalayan town of Dharali in India's Uttarakhand state and buried it in mud. The likely death toll from that disaster is more than 70 but has not been confirmed.

Floods and landslides are common during the June-September monsoon season, but experts say climate change, coupled with poorly planned development, is increasing their frequency, severity and impact.

Social media users appeared to believe the clip to be genuine, with one commenting, "Oh god protect all". 

"It is a very terrible accident," another user wrote.  

But the video is AI-generated. 

A combination of reverse image search and subsequent keyword search found the video posted on Instagram on August 20 (archived link). 

"Train in Patna falls in Ganga, AI edited," its caption says.

"This video is completely Al generated and not real. It's made only for entertainment and creativity purposes. Please don't take it as real footage."

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Screenshot comparison between false post (L) and Instagram video

The account has repeatedly uploaded similar AI-generated videos and states in its bio, " AI Video Creator ". 

Satish Toriyahi, owner of the Instagram account, told AFP on August 27 that he made the videos using "pro AI tools like Google VEO and Grok's advanced version."  

"I first created a timeline by submitting a few seconds of prompt to Google's tool and later edited it with the help of Premiere Pro and added sound to it," Toriyahi told AFP via phone.  

Despite the meteoric rise in AI technology, visual errors -- like distorted text on train compartments and microphones as well as unnatural movement of water -- still appear. Careful examination of an image is a key tool for determining authenticity.

AFP has previously debunked false claims about monsoon floods in India as well as fabricated content created with AI.   

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