This Is Not a Photo of a Building Damaged After the Recent Earthquake in Kashmir
The photo is from Turkey, which experienced strong earthquakes on 6 February.
The photo dates back to February 2023 and is not related to the recent tremors felt in parts of northern India on 21 March.
(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)
Social media users shared a photo of a damaged building claiming that it showed a structure in Kashmir that was destroyed after a recent earthquake which hit parts of northern India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan on 21 March.
The claim further states that three people were killed as a result of the collapse.
An archive of this post can be seen here.
(Archives of more such claims can be seen here, here and here.)
Is it true?: No.
The viral photo shows a building that collapsed in Turkey's Kahramanmaras after an earthquake hit the country on 6 February.
Kupwara police's verified Twitter account rubbished the claim about three people being killed as result of the earthquake, dubbing it "fake."
How did we find out?: We ran a reverse image search on the viral photo which led us to the same photo on Getty Images.
The photo's caption mentioned that it showed a building which was damaged in Kahramanmaras, Turkey after an earthquake on 6 February.
The image's caption mentioned that it showed a building in Turkey.
Getty Images credited the photo to one Firat Ozdemir and Turkish news agency Anadolu Agency.
Taking a cue from this, we used relevant keywords on Anadolu Agency's website to look for the photo, where we came across a report published on 6 February.
The article's translated caption mentions earthquakes in Turkey's Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep.
It carried the viral photo and mentioned that Kahramanmaras was hit by earthquakes of 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude.
Three deaths in Kashmir?: Syed Junaid Hashmi, a local journalist from Jammu and Kashmir told Quint Hindi that there were no reports of any deaths related to the recent earthquake.
Kupwara Police, too, called the claim "fake."
Conclusion: A photo from Turkey was shared to falsely claim that three people were killed in Kashmir after the recent earthquake on 21 March.
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