Old Finnish Clip of Civil Engg Work Shared As ‘Lightning on River’

The video shows Finnish underwater drilling and blasting operations, which attempt to deepen the waterway.

A video from 2012 showing a trail of light going into a water body and setting off an explosive reaction is being shared on social media. Users claim that it shows what happens when ‘lightning’ hits a river.

However, we found that the video dates back to 2012 and was first uploaded on YouTube by Finnish beach and civil engineering company Rannikon Merityö. The video, whose title translates to ‘Drilling, part 3: Blasting’ shows the company deepening a waterway.

CLAIM

Several social media users have shared the video with Hindi or English text, claiming that it shows the effect of lightning on a river.

More claims across Facebook and Twitter can be viewed here, here, here and here.

We found posts on social media platforms from 2017 and 2019 with the same video, shared with the same claim.

The Quint received queries about the video on its WhatsApp tipline as well.

WHAT WE FOUND

Using InVID, a video verification tool, we extracted frames from the video and ran reverse image searches on them and found a YouTube video published on 20 December 2012, on a channel named ‘Rannikon Merityö’.

It was uploaded titled 'Porapaalutusta, osa 3: Räjäytys' [Translation: Drilling, part 3: Blasting] and its description reads: "In this video, we deepen the waterway”.

We found the same video on the company's website under 'Louhinta' or Mining. The translated webpage explains -

“Underwater mining is used to rehabilitate beaches and waterways and to establish sea signs. In addition, the dredging, construction and maintenance of waterways will be carried out through excavation and blasting work. Excavation is carried out by placing an underwater special explosive in the boreholes, which is immersed in the holes drilled in the rock.”

The company had also uploaded the same video to their Facebook page in 2018, informing viewers that their company handles 'challenging underwater excavation and construction' and added a link to their website for enquiries and quotes.

Fact-checking website Snopes had previously debunked such claims in the USA in 2017.

Evidently, this video does not show lightning striking a river. It is an old video from 2012 and shows a Finnish company working to deepen a waterway.

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