Aerial photo of Vietnam floods falsely shared as southern Thailand

Published on November 28, 2025 at 08:11
2 min read
By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand

Severe flooding displaced thousands of people in southern Thailand in November 2025, but an image of a submerged region shared online does not show the disaster's impact. The picture was taken in central Vietnam and the photographer confirmed to AFP he captured the scene on October 29, 2025.

"Latest image: the whole area is about to go under. Hat Yai is flooded," reads the caption of a Thai-language Facebook post on November 25, 2025.

The post -- which has been shared over 26,000 times -- includes an aerial image of submerged houses and farmlands.

The government declared a state of emergency in southern Songkhla province on November 25, with torrential rains since late last week inundating the tourist hub of Hat Yai and the southern region.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken on November 26, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The disaster displaced tens of thousands of people and left at least 55 dead as of Friday, according to officials (archived link).

The image has been shared alongside identical claims across all platforms in Thailand from Facebook, TikTok and Instagram to Threads, X and YouTube. The claim is also being shared by users in Myanmar and Malaysia.

But the aerial image does not show flooding in Thailand.

Central Vietnam flood

A reverse image search on Google found a similar scene from a TikTok clip shared on November 21, 2025 (archived link).

"Central Vietnam, the rain and floods have submerged everything #sosad," reads its Vietnamese-language caption.

Screenshot comparison between the false Facebook post (left) and the TikTok post (right)

The TikTok user did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.

AFP could not independently verify the provenance of the video.

Subsequent keyword searches led to a similar photo published by government website Vietnam.VN about the historic floods in central Vietnam on October 30, 2025 (archived link).

The images were credited to military photographer Mai Thanh Hai, who told AFP he took the picture from a military aircraft flying over Hoi An on October 29, 2025 (archived link).

"This was taken during the approach for landing at Da Nang Airport, and it is within the area of Hoi An," he told AFP on November 25, 2025.

Screenshot comparison between the false post (left) and an aerial photograph by Mai Thanh Hai (right)

Hai's photo along with several others were also published in Ho Chi Minh City-based newspaper Thanh Nien on October 30 (archived link).

Hai identified the Cua Dai Bridge in the top right of the image and said the flooded curve area is a coconut forest (archived link).

Flooding triggered record heavy rains in late October inundated more than 100,000 homes in Vietnam's central and highland provinces (archived link). By late November, the death toll surged to at least 90 as floods inundated over 80,000 hectares of farmland and killed over 3.2 million livestock (archived link).

AFP has debunked other claims related to floods in Thailand.

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