No, this is not a ‘breaking’ news photo of a recent earthquake in the Philippines
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on April 26, 2019 at 09:30
- 2 min read
- By AFP Philippines
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The photo, contained in this Facebook post which has been shared around 1,400 times since it was published April 23, 2019, shows people carrying their belongings along a road which has collapsed.
The post’s caption says: “BREAKING: A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck Eastern Samar at 1:37PM MNL time.”
Below is a screenshot of the post:
An earthquake did hit the central Philippine island of Samar on April 23 at 1:37 pm local time.
The US Geological Survey put the magnitude at 6.4 on its website here, while Philippine seismologists reported it was a 6.5 strength quake here.
That tremor struck a day after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit northwest of the capital Manila. Here is an AFP report on the two earthquakes.
However, a reverse image search using verification tool Tineye traced the photo in the post back to the website of international news agency Reuters.
The photo’s caption says it is from February 7, 2012, and shows a road damaged by an earthquake in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental in the central Philippines – around 250 kilometres (150 miles) from Eastern Samar.
Below is a screenshot of the Reuters photo:
The Reuters photo can also be seen in this February 8, 2012, article published by the International Business Times. It is the sixth image in the photo gallery.
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