Footage from Nicaragua misrepresented as Sri Lankan flooding
- Published on December 1, 2025 at 10:06
- 2 min read
- By Harshana SILVA, AFP Sri Lanka
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As Cyclone Ditwah brought heavy rains and triggered deadly floods in Sri Lanka in late November 2025, a video was shared in posts falsely claiming it showed a vehicle being swept away by raging waters. The video was in fact filmed in Nicaragua and has circulated in reports since May 2023.
Warning: graphic footage
"You may have the best car in the world, but it is nothing in the face of nature," reads the Sinhala-language caption of a Facebook video shared on November 27, 2025.
Content warning
The video, which was viewed more than 1.2 million times, comprises two clips showing a car being swept away by rushing water after its driver attempts to pass through a flooded street.
It surfaced after at least 334 people were killed in floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah, the worst natural disaster to hit Sri Lanka in two decades (archived link).
Authorities say nearly 400 are missing and more than 1.3 million people across the island have been affected by the record rains.
The footage was also shared in similar Facebook posts, but it in fact shows an incident that occurred in Nicaragua in 2023.
AFP previously debunked a similar false claim that misrepresented the video as having been filmed during flooding in southern India.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes found a corresponding video uploaded to the YouTube channel of Nicaraguan broadcaster 100% Noticias on May 29, 2023 (archived link).
"Driver was dragged by strong currents due to rain in Managua," reads its Spanish title, referring to Nicaragua's capital.
"The driver of a four-wheel-drive truck was swept away this Monday by a strong current of water in a Managua riverbed that divides Veracruz from Las Jagüitas," reads the video's description.
It says police identified the man driving the car as 48-year-old Alberto Uriel Romero.
Content warning
A video report about the tragedy uploaded on the YouTube page of Nicaraguan TV channel VOS TV on June 1, 2023 shows a journalist standing at the accident site (archived link).
"I am at the scene of the tragedy, the place that has basically gained notoriety this week, where Mr Alberto Romero, 48 years old, died aboard his truck after being dragged by the strength of the channel behind me," the journalist says.
The bridge behind him matches the one seen in the circulating video.
AFP has previously debunked claims related to floods.
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