Clip of People Falling Into Massive Hole in Road Is From Sri Lanka, Not India!
This clip is from Sri Lanka and has falsely gone viral as one from India.
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A video showing two individuals on a bike and unexpectedly falling into a deep pothole in the road is being shared on social media platforms as one from India.
Those sharing have blamed the Indian government and the Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari for the condition of the road in the video.
(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false as the incident is not from India.
It shows an incident that occurred in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in September 2023.
Media reports state that a man and his daughter plummeted into a 16-foot-deep pit filled with water while biking in the Gothatuwa area and were later safely rescued.
What we found: At first, we divided the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.
We came across a YouTube video from 20 September 2023 which noted that a father and daughter faced a terrible accident at one IDH junction in Sri Lanka.
We, then, ran a relevant keyword search and came across a report from a daily Sinhala newspaper called Lankadeepa which also included the viral video.
The report noted that a father-daughter duo fell into a massive waterlogged hole on the road. They were subsequently helped by onlookers and were rescued.
It also noted that the hole was reportedly around sixteen feet deep, and the street was inundated because of a broken water line.
Similarly, another news outlet Lanka Truth also covered this incident in 2023.
Conclusion: The incident took place in Sri Lanka in 2023 and does not show an incident from India.
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