Fact-Check: Old, Unrelated Clips Viral as One From Recent Delhi Floods

We could not trace the clips' location, but they predate the Delhi floods.

Amid heavy rains and flooding in Delhi, a collection of videos have gone viral on social media, allegedly showing scenes from the capital where individuals are seen fleeing the streets, and water can be seen gushing and carrying away bridges.

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false.

• None of these clips are from Delhi and predate the recent floods.

What we found: We checked all the clips separately and found the following.

Clip 1: This video showed a large number of people fleeing the streets.

• We divided the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

• It led us to a Facebook post from 30 June which featured the same video. Its caption noted that the video was from Togolese Republic in West Africa.

• The reverse image search results also led us to a TikTok. Using a virtual private network (VPN), we accessed the page and it showed the same clip.

• The video was uploaded on 26 June and its comments noted that the incident was from Kenya.

• We ran a relevant keyword search and found reports from June about protests in Kenya.

• Al Jazeera reported that the protests were a segment of a broader movement that started in 2024 following the Kenyan government's introduction of a contentious financial bill.

• During this period, multiple individuals lost their lives. In tribute to those victims, protests restarted in June following the fatalities of a teacher and a blogger while in police custody.

• The demonstrations, which began in Nairobi and subsequently extended to various regions in Kenya, witnessed significant involvement from the youth in the country.

• Additionally, we also found reports about protests in Togo in June. Widespread youth-led protests broke out when constitutional reforms were brought that critics argued enabled President Faure Gnassingbé to extend his rule indefinitely, reported Al Jazeera.

• The protests, primarily driven by individuals under 25, were swiftly and violently suppressed by security forces, resulting in at least four deaths, numerous injuries, and over 60 arrests.

• Although, we were unable to verify the location of the video, the clip predates the floods in Delhi which happened in September.

Clip 2: We divided the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

• It led us to the same video on YouTube from 12 July, prior to the floods in Delhi. This verifies that the video has no connection to the recent flood event in Delhi.

Clip 3: For this video, we broke down the video into multiple platforms and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

• We were led to the same video on Facebook however, it was uploaded on 17 August. This video also predates the floods in Delhi in September.

• Similarly, we found the same video on Facebook around a similar date from 18 August.

• This also predates the recent Delhi floods which happened in September.

Conclusion: All the clips in the viral video predate the recent floods in Delhi.

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