Video doesn’t show Cyclone Biparjoy battering Karachi
If your time is short
- This video shows a collection of movie clips and old storm footage.
India and Pakistan recently braced for severe weather as a powerful tropical storm churned toward shore, and by June 16, Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall, causing flooding, heavy rains and strong winds.
Two people died in India, CBS News reported, and no deaths were reported in Pakistan. In fact, though Karachi had been forecast in the storm’s path, according to CBS, Pakistan’s largest city was “largely spared.”
That makes a recent and widely viewed video on Facebook all the more confusing.
“Current weather situation in Karachi,” the June 16 post says. The footage in the post’s four-minute-plus video shows scenes of destruction, boats toppling in stormy seas, and surging tsunami waves.
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
We did reverse-image searches of several scenes in the video, and none show Karachi during this recent storm.
Included in the montage are clips from the 2009 movie “Tidal Wave,” footage of people enjoying the beach in Karachi in May 2022, and video clips that first appeared online years ago.
We rate claims that this video shows recent weather in Karachi False.
Our Sources
Facebook post, June 16, 2023
Yandex search, June 19, 2023
Far East Films, Tidal Wave, 2009
IMDB, "Tidal Wave," 2009
Sciences et Avenir, Canicule en Inde et au Pakistan : vers un avenir encore pire, May 6, 2022
YouTube, Mega Tsunami Scenes From The Film-Heaundae (2009) HD, June 7, 2020
CBS News, Cyclone Biparjoy hits India and Pakistan hard, setting a record, but mass-evacuations save lives, June 16, 2023
The Associated Press, Thousands in western India relief camps begin returning home as Cyclone Biparjoy recedes, June 17, 2023
Reuters, Weather office warns of floods as India, Pakistan brace for cyclone, June 14, 2023
