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A video is going viral on social media with the claim of a shipwreck along the coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat as Cyclone Biparjoy is due to set in.
Cyclone Biparjoy will make landfall in Gujarat's Kutch and Saurashtra districts on 15 June and over 20,000 people have already been evacuated.
What is the claim?: The claim read that due to the occurrence of Cyclone Biparjoy, a shipwreck has happened. It further says that the IMD has issued a high alert along the coasts of Mumbai and Gujarat.
(Archives of similar posts can be found here, here and here.)
What is the truth?: The video is of a boat that was overturned due to hazardous weather in the Pacific Ocean. This video is from the United States of America (USA) and not from the Gujarat coast, as claimed.
How did we found out?: We did a Google reverse image search on the viral video.
This led us to many news articles by different organisations.
A BBC report from February on rough seas off the Pacific coast of the US had the same viral video.
It further read that the coastguard was attempting to rescue a person from the boat. In the process, the boat capsized due to the severe weather conditions.
The Guardian also reported the news about the overturned boat along the same lines as BBC, on 5 February.
We compared the frames of both the videos and came across similarities.
(Source: BBC/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
Latest on Cyclone Biparjoy:
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has sounded a 'Red Alert' for the Saurashtra and Kutch coasts of Gujarat.
Cyclone Biparjoy, which has been categorised as a "very severe cyclonic storm", is expected to cross the Gujarat coast on 15 June.
The states of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are expected to experience rainfall due to the depression.
Conclusion: The video is from the Pacific Ocean, USA and is being falsely linked with Cyclone Biparjoy in India.
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