Unrelated clips falsely misrepresented as Super Typhoon Ragasa's impact in China
- Published on October 3, 2025 at 08:56
- 3 min read
- By Sammy HEUNG, AFP Hong Kong
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"Compilation of Ragasa sweeping through, the most dangerous scenes! Buildings were blown apart, adults knocked to the ground, and factory roofs torn off -- so terrifying!" reads the simplified Chinese caption of a YouTube short published on September 27, 2025.
The video, which has been viewed over 4,800 times, is a collection of clips showing violent winds damaging buildings -- including an elevator shaft at a construction site collapsing -- and people getting knocked over by strong gusts.
Text on the video reads: "Ragasa caused damage to Yangjiang on an unprecedented scale".
The same clips also spread on Douyin and Facebook with a similar claim, as well as in other languages such as English, Bosnian, and Arabic.
Ragasa churned into Guangdong, home to tens of millions of people, with winds up to 145 kilometres (90 miles) per hour, on September 24 after sweeping past Hong Kong and killing at least 14 in Taiwan (archived link).
AFP journalists at the impact point around the city of Yangjiang saw fallen trees, while road signs and debris were strewn across the streets.
But many of the videos in the false posts are not related to the typhoon.
Old footage from Typhoon Mangkhut
The clip of an elevator shaft collapsing was filmed when Typhoon Mangkhut hit Hong Kong in 2018. AFP debunked earlier claims using the same footage.
A reverse image search leads to a Facebook video posted on September 16, 2018, with a caption saying that the shaft was located at a building under construction in the Tai Kok Tsui area (archived link).
Police said some 40 residents in the area were evacuated after the accident and no one was injured, according to the South China Morning Post (archived link).
Another news report by local media i-Cable aired footage of the collapse from another angle (archived link).
Satellite images from Google Maps also show similar structures around the building, which has since been completed (archived link).
Dezhou storm
AFP has also debunked two other clips in the false video showing violent winds knocking over people.
A keyword search on Google found the People's Daily published the clip showing a woman and a girl being swept to the ground by intense winds on July 2, 2024 (archived link).
"A mother and daughter were nearly swept away in the fierce wind and heavy rain in Shandong on June 30," its caption reads.
An uncropped version of the clip partially shows a partial sign in the background -- which is revealed to be the Ping Yuan Chinese-English Experimental High School in Dezhou, according to images of the school on Baidu Map (archived here and here).
The city is over 1,700 kilometres (1,100 miles) away from where Ragasa made landfall.
A further keyword search leads to footage that video licensing agency Newsflare published on June 30, 2024 showing the same scene from another angle (archived link).
Shenzhen rains
The video of a woman falling to the ground was filmed in Shenzhen in April 2024 as torrential rains lashed southern China at the time (archived link).
A reverse image search found Newsflare published the clip on April 26, 2024 with a description saying it shows pedestrians struggling "to maintain their balance against the powerful gusts" (archived link).
AFP has also fact-checked other falsely shared clips of Typhoon Ragasa.
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