Old Video From Japan Peddled as Recent Visuals From Tajikistan Earthquake

This video shows scenes during an earthquake in Japan and dates back to 2021.

A video showing things falling down from the shelves due to a tremor caused by a strong earthquake is going viral on social media as a video from Tajikistan.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 hit Tajikistan on Thursday, 23 February.

Who shared it?: Along with social media users, news media outlet, Moneycontrol, also shared the video with the same claim.

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

Where is the video actually from?: The video dates back to February 2021 and is from Japan.

How did we find out the truth?: We ran a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video and came across a YouTube video from 2021.

• The video was uploaded by a Turkish public broadcaster, TRT World Now, a verified news channel on YouTube.

• The clip was shared on 13 February 2021 with a title that said that this visual is from an earthquake that hit Fukushima, Japan.

• We also found a report by News Wire LK, a news portal from Sri Lanka from 13 February 2021 about the Japan earthquake.

• The report stated that an earthquake with magnitude of 7.1 hit off Fukushima prefecture in northeastern Japan, causing blackouts in over 800,000 households.

• The report carried a tweet that included this viral video which had garnered over 5.2 million views while writing this article.

• The tweet was made by username '@himei42' on 13 February 2021.

• We also found a report by news agency Reuters from 13 February 2021 which said that according to Japan Meteorological Agency, the earthquake had a 7.3 magnitude.

What about the recent earthquake in Tajikistan?: Tajikistan was hit by 6.8 magnitude earthquake on 23 February and its tremors were felt in China and other neighbouring countries.

• The quake had struck the mountainous Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region.

Conclusion: An old video from Japan is being shared as recent visuals from Tajikistan earthquake.

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