This image was doctored to combine two different photographs
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on February 9, 2022 at 07:29
- 3 min read
- By Mohammad MAZED, AFP Bangladesh
Copyright © AFP 2017-2024. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
The image was shared on Facebook on January 21.
The image's Bengali-language caption translates in part as, "Bangabandhu Tunnel. South Asia's first tunnel under the Karnaphuli river."
An underwater tunnel, called Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel, was under construction as of January 18 in the port city of Chattogram in the southeastern coast of Bangladesh.
The Beijing-funded underwater tunnel -- dubbed the first in South Asia -- is scheduled for completion in December 2022.
The image was also shared here and here on Facebook alongside similar claims.
Comments to the posts indicate some users believed image showed a genuine tunnel.
One wrote: "Wow! Beautiful!" Another said: "Congratulations! All the best!"
However, the image was digitally manipulated.
Tunnel in Germany
A reverse search found the bottom part of the image was previously published on online library Wikimedia Commons, dating back to June 8, 2006 with photo credit to K. Jähne. The page states the photo shows the north portal of the Engelberg Base Tunnel in Leonberg, Germany.
Wikimedia Commons is a project of Wikimedia Foundation which provides free-use images, sounds and other media.
The same photo was also published on online database Structurae.net and Switzerland's Amberg Engineering company's official website with descriptions about the Engelberg Base Tunnel.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored image (left) and the photo posted on Wikimedia Commons in 2006 (right):
River Photo
Another reverse search on Yandex found the top part of the image shows a photo uploaded on the online travel website Tripadvisor by a Bangladesh-based user in a June 2019 review of the Karnaphuli River in Chattagram, Bangladesh.
The headline of the post reads: "Life line River of Bangladesh".
"Karnaphuli river originates from Saith village of Mamith district, Mizoram, India. I[it] passes through hills moves through locality finally falls in told Bay of Bengal," the post reads in part.
Karnaphuli River is the largest river in the Chittagong region and it harbours the main seaport of Bangladesh.
Below shows a screenshot comparison of the doctored image (left) and the photo posted on Tripadvisor in 2019 (right):
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
