After a robust earthquake struck China’s distant Tibet area and killed at the least 126 individuals, an outdated video of a bike owner panicking as tremors shook the buildings round him unfold globally in social media posts that falsely linked it to the catastrophe. In reality, the footage was shot in Japan and circulated in information reviews a few quake that hit the nation on New 12 months’s Day 2024.
“6.8-magnitude earthquake in Shigatse, Tibet,” learn the simplified Chinese language caption of a video posted on Douyin on January 7.
The video, shared greater than 3,200 occasions, seems to be dashcam footage of a bike owner panicking as he’s caught within the midst of a robust tremor that collapses one constructing and violently shakes one other.
It surfaced on-line hours after a devastating earthquake jolted China’s distant Tibet area on January 7, leaving at the least 126 individuals lifeless (archived link).
One other 188 had been injured and hundreds of buildings broken within the quake that struck rural, high-altitude Tingri county, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Mount Everest close to China’s border with Nepal. Tremors had been additionally felt in neighbouring Nepal and India, although no casualties had been reported.
The China Earthquake Networks Heart (CENC) measured the quake’s magnitude as 6.8, whereas the US Geological Survey reported it as 7.1.
Screenshot of the falsely shared put up, captured on January 8, 2024
The video surfaced in posts in a number of languages, together with Nepali, English, Urdu, Bangla, Malay, Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese.
Nevertheless, the clip is outdated and was shot in the course of the lethal 2024 New 12 months’s Day quake that hit Japan’s distant Noto Peninsula, claiming practically 470 lives and laying waste to homes and infrastructure (archived link).
Japan New 12 months’s Day quake
A reverse picture search on Google led to a video compilation of dashcam footage from the Noto earthquake printed by Japanese newspaper The Mainichi on February 8 (archived link).
The video of the bike owner may be seen on the video’s two-minute, 12-second mark.
Beneath is a screenshot comparability of the clip within the false posts (left) and the video printed by The Mainichi (proper):
Screenshot comparability of the clip within the false posts (left) and the video printed by The Mainichi (proper)
In line with The Mainichi, the footage was recorded on January 1 by the dashcam of a courtesy automotive belonging to the social welfare group Choujukai, which is predicated in Ishikawa prefecture, the place the earthquake hit.
The footage was additionally posted on YouTube by Japanese broadcasters All-Nippon News and Japan News Network (archived here and here).
The unique footage consists of the coordinates for the placement the video was shot — on a section of Nationwide Route 249 in Ishikawa Prefecture within the Noto Peninsula (archived link).
Google Avenue View imagery from September 2023 exhibits the identical store with the blue signboard and home with a conventional roof as these seen within the video (archived link).
Beneath is a screenshot comparability of the footage launched by The Mainichi (left) and the Avenue View imagery (proper), with similarities highlighted by AFP:
Screenshot comparability of the footage launched by The Mainichi (left) and the Avenue View imagery (proper), with similarities highlighted by AFP
