Video shows floods in Mexico, not Cambodia
- Published on October 20, 2025 at 11:02
- 2 min read
- By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand
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Record floods swept through parts of Vietnam and Cambodia in early October 2025, but a video of vehicles inundated by floodwaters was not filmed during the recent disaster, contrary to claims circulating on social media. The footage in fact shows floods months earlier in central Mexico.
"Breaking news: Cambodia is hit by severe flooding. Water from Vietnam has surged into the country with powerful flash floods on October 8, 2025. Cambodia is submerged," reads the Thai-language caption to a TikTok video on October 8, 2025.
The 29-second clip shows two vehicles being buffeted by fast-flowing floodwaters in a street.
Consecutive storms brought record flooding to Vietnam and Cambodia in early October, killing at least 50 in the former while leaving tens of thousands stranded as floodwaters submerged streets, villages and paddy fields (archived here and here).
Similar claims surfaced elsewhere in Thai-language posts on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram in what appears to be part of an ongoing social media battle between Thai and Cambodian users since deadly border clashes in July (archived link).
However, the video does not depict the flooding in Cambodia.
A reverse image search on Google using the video's keyframes found a longer version of the clip published on Facebook on June 17, 2025 (archived link).
The Spanish-language caption says the footage shows an incident on June 15, 2025, when a van from a telecommunications company was swept away by floodwaters in the Menchaca neighbourhood in Queretaro, a city in central Mexico.
AFP also found other posts sharing similar videos from other angles with captions saying the footage shows the flood in Menchaca (archived here and here).
According to a local news report on June 17, Tropical Storm Dalila brought flooding and damaged homes in Queretaro (archived link). Four cars were swept away, including one belonging to a telecommunications company.
The white van has the word "izzi" on its side, which corresponds to Izzi Telecom, a Mexican telecommunications company (archived link).
The scene in the video also corresponds to Google Maps Street View imagery of Calle Rio Culiacan in Queretaro (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked posts falsely linking the same video to deadly floods in Texas in July 2025.
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