Haiti, Nepal and Myanmar earthquake images misrepresented as showing Bangladesh tremor
- Published on November 28, 2025 at 10:34
- 3 min read
- By Rasheek MUJIB, AFP Bangladesh
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After a powerful earthquake struck outside Bangladesh's crowded capital Dhaka on November 21, images were shared in posts falsely claiming they show buildings destroyed by the 5.5-magnitude tremor. The buildings were in fact damaged during devastating quakes in Nepal in April 2015, Haiti in August 2021, and Myanmar in March 2025 and shown in news reports at the time.
"Buildings damaged in the earthquake at North Badda," reads the Bengali-language caption of a Facebook photo shared on November 21, 2025, after a 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck outside Dhaka (archived link).
The photo, which was shared more than 3,200 times, shows a partially collapsed two-storey building.
A similar Facebook post shared on the same day shows an aerial view of damage to adjacent buildings alongside a caption claiming it was taken in Dhaka after the quake.
More images of damaged buildings were shared in another Facebook post on the same day, with a Bengali-language caption that reads: "Today's earthquake has caused the collapse of a garment factory building in Sreepur, Gazipur. Hundreds of people have died and many workers have been seriously injured."
The same photos were also shared across social media in similar Facebook and X posts after the November 21 tremor, which killed at least 10 people and injured more than 300.
Two minor tremors hit the country the following day, sparking panic across the country of 170 million people.
While the earthquake caused widespread destruction with at least 14 buildings damaged and a fire breaking out at a power station, the circulating photos do not show the quake's impact.
They in fact show the aftermath of tremors in different countries.
Haiti
A reverse image search on Google found the first falsely shared photo had previously been used in an Al Jazeera report from August 14, 2021 about a deadly 7.2-magnitude quake in Haiti that reduced buildings to rubble (archived link).
"Buildings destroyed following the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Les Cayes," reads the photo caption, referring to a city in Haiti.
The photo is credited to the Associated Press (AP), and was also used by the Reuters news agency (archived link). The AP also published another photo of the building from a different angle (archived link).
Haitian authorities said more than 2,000 people were killed in the August 14 quake, which directly affected nearly 600,000 people (archived link).
Nepal
A separate reverse image search of the second falsely shared image found it was used as the thumbnail for a YouTube video published on a verified Storyful channel on April 30, 2015 titled, "Drone Footage Following Nepal Earthquake" (archived link).
The Guardian newspaper also published a photo of the same buildings on the same day as part of a report about the devastating 7.8-magnitude quake in Nepal that killed almost 9,000 people and left millions homeless (archived link).
Myanmar
The third falsely shared image was traced to Indian news site Manatelegu, which used the collage of damaged buildings in a March 29, 2025 report titled, "Myanmar Earthquake Triggers Crisis" (archived link).
The shallow 7.7-magnitude quake killed nearly 3,800 people and destroyed swathes of homes and businesses (archived here and here).
The photos were also posted separately on the Instagram account of The Guwahati Times on March 28 (archived link).
The buildings were captured from different angles by Reuters, with their captions saying they were located in the central city of Mandalay (archived here and here).
AFP has previously debunked posts that misrepresented old photos and videos of natural disasters.
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