Video of earthquake shaking schoolyard is from Philippines, not Colombia
- Published on August 12, 2026 at 19:42
- 2 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
A video of children crouching as the ground rocks beneath them is spreading online in social media posts claiming it shows the deadly 7.4-magnitude earthquake that leveled buildings across Colombia on August 10, 2026. But the clip was, in fact, filmed two months earlier during an even more powerful quake that rattled the Philippines.
"Massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Colombia! Hundreds dead, thousands of homes destroyed," says one August 10, 2026 post sharing the footage on X.
Similar posts spread across platforms in both English and Spanish after the strongest earthquake to hit Colombia in a century shook several cities in the South American nation's western coffee-growing region and Pacific belt (archived here). The tremors toppled structures and swayed towers, with the cities of Cali and Pereira among the most devastated.
Volunteers were still scraping through rubble in search of survivors on August 12 as the country declared three days of mourning for the more than 200 victims who died in the quake.
Authentic footage of the earthquake's impact and harrowing aftermath has been widespread.
But the clip of children clinging to the soil as the ground around them shakes is unrelated.
Reverse image searches surfaced the same footage shared across social media on June 8 in posts linking it to a deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake in the southern Philippines, which brought down buildings, triggered landslides and set off tsunami warnings across the region (archived here).
The posts attributed the video to a Facebook user who shared the recording that day (archived here).
The user originally wrote that the clip showed the first day of school at Tubalan Elementary School in Malita, in the Davao Occidental province of the Philippines, according to the post's edit history.
He later updated his caption to implore viewers to not direct blame at the teachers, saying the students were outside by the school's basketball court when the quake struck and were then evacuated to safety with no injuries.
The school separately posted on Facebook to "address a misconception arising from a video circulating on social media" -- that the teachers used the outdoor gymnasium as an evacuation area -- and "clarify that our learners were already inside the gymnasium as part of our scheduled flag ceremony before the earthquake occurred" (archived here).
"Immediately after the tremor, our teachers and school personnel promptly implemented the school's emergency response protocols and safely guided all learners to designated safe areas," the school wrote, expressing concern over "comments that unfairly judge the actions of our teachers."
Photos on the school's Facebook page show the same roofed basketball court and other buildings, confirming the location (archived here and here).
AFP has debunked other misinformation about earthquakes here.
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