This video shows a roof collapsing at a mall in Shanghai, China in August 2019
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on September 11, 2019 at 04:55
- 3 min read
- By AFP Malaysia
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The 15-second video was published in this Facebook post on August 27, 2019. It has been viewed more than 25,000 times.
The caption states: “Pavilion, Bukit Bintang pipes burst so roof collapsed.”
The footage shows people inside a mall standing back as water pours from the ceiling. A few seconds later, part of the ceiling collapses. No one appears to have been hit by the falling debris.
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur is a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, located in the Bukit Bintang area.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:
The same clip was shared on Facebook alongside a similar claim here, here and here.
The claim is false; the incident shown in the video actually occurred at a shopping mall in Shanghai, China.
A reverse image search on Google found the same video published in this post on the Weibo account for BTV Beijing News on August 28, 2019. Weibo is China’s microblogging website equivalent to Twitter.
The Weibo post's simplified Chinese caption translates to English as: "The ceiling of a Shanghai mall collapsed, bystanders screamed and fled -- Officials responded: A water pipe burst. On August 24 the ceiling of the basement level of Qibao Vanke Plaza, Minhang District, Shanghai suddenly collapsed and passers-by screamed and fled. Shop workers nearby said that several small holes had appeared in the ceiling and water was flowing through them. The ceiling collapsed about a minute later. Qibao Town's publicity department said that the ceiling water pipe burst first, then the water overflowed and caused the ceiling collapse. No-one was injured."
Sina Shanghai, Sina’s regional Weibo account, also posted this video on August 27, 2019. A Shanghai Television logo can be seen in the top left corner of the screen.
The Weibo post's caption translates to English in part as: "(The collapsed ceiling at Qibao Vanke Plaza, Minhang District, Shanghai has been recovered Local malls under comprehensive check on potential dangers)".
The same footage from the misleading video corresponds with the Sina Shanghai video from the 13-seconds to the 18-seconds mark. Below are three sets of screenshot comparisons between the video in the misleading posts (L) and the Sina Shanghai video (R):
The video of Qibao Vanke Plaza corresponds with photos of shops in the mall posted by users on Dianping.com here, here and here. Dianping.com is the Chinese equivalent of information site Yelp.
Below are three sets of comparison of the shop signs from the video in the misleading posts (L) and the corresponding shop photos posted on Dianping.com by users (R):
The same video was also published here by Hong Kong-based newspaper Oriental Daily on August 25.
The first paragraph of the traditional Chinese language report translates to English as: "The water pipe in a mall from Qibao Town, Minhang District, Shanghai burst suddenly on Saturday (August 24). Water leaked from the ceiling and passers-by evaded it. The ceiling collapsed -- it’s thought because it was not strong enough to bear the added weight of the water from the suspected leak. Fortunately, no-one was injured. After two hours of cleaning up, the affected part of the mall was back to business. The cause of the incident is still under investigation."
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