Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Tuesday, October 8, 2024

HomeFact CheckVideo Of Building Collapse In Saudi Arabia Falsely Linked To Turkey Earthquake 

Video Of Building Collapse In Saudi Arabia Falsely Linked To Turkey Earthquake 

Authors

An Electronics & Communication engineer by training, Arjun switched to journalism to follow his passion. After completing a diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the India Today Media Institute, he has been debunking mis/disinformation for over three years. His areas of interest are politics and social media. Before joining Newschecker, he was working with the India Today Fact Check team.

The deadly earthquakes in Turkey and Syria have left behind a trail of destruction, killing at least 5000 people and causing massive infrastructure damage. In this backdrop, one such video showing a multi-story building crumbling into a pile of debris in a matter of a few seconds is going viral on social media, with users linking it to the Turkey earthquake. 

The video has been shared on various social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter, including users with verified handles. 

Archive of the post can be seen here.

Building Collapse
Courtesy: Twitter@Richtasy

Archive of the post can be seen here.

Fact Check/Verification

We first split the video into several keyframes using the In-Vid tool, following which, we conducted a reverse image search of the keyframes of the viral video. We were led to a TikTok post from January 16 which carried the viral video with a caption in Arabic informing that the video was from old Mecca road, Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).

Building Collapse
Courtesy: TikTok

With the help of some keywords in Arabic, we found the same video on YouTube also, uploaded on January 19. The description here indicated that the location of the building is old Mecca road, Kilo 3, Jeddah.

Turkey Earthquake 
Courtesy: YouTube

Newschecker then tried to search for the location on Google Maps. We found the street view of a building which had similarities to the one seen in the viral video. On analysing the image, we noticed a bank named “Banque Saudi Fransi” on the ground floor of the building. 

Turkey Earthquake 
Courtesy: Google Maps

On looking up the name of the bank on Google, we found more images of the same building and the bank. Comparing these photos with the viral video, we were able to ascertain that they both showed the same building. The satellite view of the building can be seen here.

Turkey Earthquake 
Courtesy: Google & Viral video

We further found reports and videos that revealed that Saudi Arabia has been razing buildings in Jeddah to redevelop old areas of the city under a multi-billion-dollar project that was announced last year.

While some social media users pointed out in the comment section that it appeared to be a controlled demolition, we couldn’t independently verify that the collapse of this particular building was part of planned razing by Saudi authorities. 

However, based on our findings, it is clear that the video is from Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah, and not from Turkey.

Conclusion

Thus, it can be concluded that the video of a building collapsing in Saudi Arabia is being falsely linked to the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria. The video has been available on the internet since last month. 

Result: False

Our Sources

TikTok and YouTube videos, uploaded in January 2023
Google Maps

Claim: Video Of Building Collapse In Turkey
Claimed By: Social Media Users
Fact Check: False

If you would like us to fact-check a claim, give feedback or lodge a complaint, WhatsApp us at 9999499044 or email us at checkthis@newschecker.in. You can also visit the Contact Us page and fill out the form.

Authors

An Electronics & Communication engineer by training, Arjun switched to journalism to follow his passion. After completing a diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the India Today Media Institute, he has been debunking mis/disinformation for over three years. His areas of interest are politics and social media. Before joining Newschecker, he was working with the India Today Fact Check team.

Arjun Deodia
An Electronics & Communication engineer by training, Arjun switched to journalism to follow his passion. After completing a diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the India Today Media Institute, he has been debunking mis/disinformation for over three years. His areas of interest are politics and social media. Before joining Newschecker, he was working with the India Today Fact Check team.

Most Popular