Clip shows floodwaters sweeping away bridge in Vietnam, not Indonesia
- Published on December 8, 2025 at 04:55
- 2 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
Days of heavy rain triggered destructive flash-flooding and landslides on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, but a video showing a bridge collapsing into a river and being washed away was not filmed in the country as social media posts claim. The footage in fact shows a suspension bridge that was swept away by a surge of floodwater in central Vietnam on November 20.
"The latest update from Sibolga city on November 26," reads the Indonesian-language caption of a TikTok video shared on November 26, 2025.
Superimposed text on the video, which shows a crowd of people watching as a bridge is ripped from its moorings by floodwaters, says "Seconds before a bridge was swept away by the overflowing river".
It surfaced as torrential rains in late November caused flash floods and landslides in several provinces of Sumatra, where more than 800,000 people have been displaced (archived link). Authorities said at least 950 people have died, and a further 274 are missing (archived link).
Demonstrators have rallied after the Indonesian government shrugged off calls to declare a national disaster, while some victims accused officials of engaging in "disaster tourism" and failing to address the crisis.
Two separate weather systems dumped massive rainfall on Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam (archived link).
Seasonal monsoons across Asia bring rainfall that farmers depend on, but climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic, unpredictable and deadly throughout the region.
Environmentalists and Indonesia's government have also pointed to the role forest loss played in the flash flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages and stranded residents on rooftops.
The video was also shared on other posts on TikTok and Facebook as survivors in Indonesia pieced back their shattered lives and counted the cost of the deluge.
While the flooding has damaged bridges in Sumatra, including a crossing in Sibolga, the circulating video was not recorded in Indonesia (archived here, here and here).
Vietnamese bridge
A closer look at the road signs on the approach to the bridge which are visible in the falsely shared video show they say "0,5 T" and "CẦU PHÚ THIÊN. DÀI 120m. RỘNG 2m"
The signs are referring to the weight limit, length and width of the Phu Thien Bridge, a suspension bridge over the Da Nhim River in Vietnam's Lam Dong Province.
Google Street View imagery of the bridge taken in 2022 matches features of the falsely shared video (archived link).
A reverse image search found similar footage taken from a different angle was also featured in reports about floods and landslides that hit central Vietnam on November 20 (archived here and here).
VietNamNet, a Vietnamese online newspaper affiliated with the Ministry of Information and Communications reported that authorities in Lam Dong said the Phu Thien suspension bridge was "swept away by a surge of floodwater from upstream" on November 20 (archived link).
AFP has debunked other misinformation stemming from the flooding across Asia.
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