This footage shows a tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, not a flood in Pakistan in 2020
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on December 8, 2020 at 02:40
- 2 min read
- By AFP Sri Lanka
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The video was shared in this Facebook post on December 2, 2020.
The text superimposed on the three-minute, 26-second video reads: “Karachi Pakistan today”
The post’s Sinhala-language caption translates to English as: “May all the people in the world be protected”
The claim circulated just hours before tropical cyclone Burevi made landfall in Sri Lanka, before hitting India about 24 hours later.
The video was shared with a similar claim on Facebook here, here, here, here and here.
The claim is false; the footage actually shows a tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.
A reverse image search with video keyframes obtained using digital verification tool InVID-WeVerify found this YouTube clip published on October 25, 2012. It is titled; “Tsunami gaining speed on Minato district, Ishinomaki city [Video provided by viewers]”.
It was published by an account named FNN11 - an official channel of Fuji News.
From the 35-second mark to the four-minute one-second mark, the YouTube clip is identical to the footage featured in the misleading Facebook posts, as seen in the below screenshot comparisons:
The same video can be seen in this YouTube clip published on April 30, 2011 titled ‘2011 Japan Tsunami: Ishinomaki [stabilized with Deshaker]’.
The video was filmed here in the Japanese city of Ishinomaki.
AFP has previously fact checked the video here and here after it circulated with other misleading claims.
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