Old Video From Saudi Arabia Linked to Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria

The video has been on the internet since January and is from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Fact-Check: This video is neither from Turkey or Syria nor does it show the impact of the recent earthquakes.

(Photo: The Quint)

News organisations CNBC Awaaz and News18 Odia have shared a video of a building collapsing and crumbling into a pile of debris by linking it to the earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria on Monday and Tuesday, 6-7 February.

At least 15,000 people have been reportedly killed and several buildings have collapsed.

The claim: CNBC Awaaz shared the video with a caption that read, "भूकंप का कहर". [Translation: The destruction caused by the earthquake.]

The caption included hashtags such as #PrayForTurkey #Turkey #earthquakeinturkey #Syria.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Archives of more such posts can be found here and here.)

The truth: The video is from Saudi Arabia and versions of the same have been on the internet since January. It predates the earthquakes that took place in Turkey and Syria.

How did we find that out: We used the InVID WeVerify Google Chrome extension to extract keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search on some of them.

While going through the search results, we came across the same video posted on TikTok on 16 January.

Date in the TikTok video precedes the earthquakes in Turkey. 

• The caption of the video, when translated from Arabic to English using Google Translate said, “Jeddah Cleo 3 Old Mecca Road.”

• We used the Arabic keywords to conduct a search and found more YouTube videos from 19 January and a dash camera video from 12 April 2022.

• The dash camera video shows several buildings razed to the ground on the left side of the road and some shops on the right side.

Comparing the viral video and the dashcam footage.

Geolocating the building:

• While looking for images and street views on Google maps, we came across a 2017 street view image that had the same shops and institutions as seen in the dashcam video - Saab bank, Deestone and Hankook tire shops.

Comparing the street view with the dashcam video. 

• The building on the other side of the street view, which was demolished in the viral video, had the board of one "Banque Saudi Fransi".

A link to the map can be found here.

• We looked for more images of the bank and found pictures on Google reviews that resembled the one being demolished and the one in the dash camera video.

The building was razed in Jeddah.

Saudi Arabia demolishing buildings in Jeddah:

While conducting a keyword search for demolition of buildings in Saudi Arabia, we found news reports that said that the government had started a demolition drive in Jeddah to redevelop old areas for Tourism and business.

Conclusion: While we were unable to find the exact date when the building was demolished, it is evident that the video is an old one and from Saudi Arabia. It is not related to the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

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