Fact-Check: Old Clip of Earthquake in Nepal Shared as Recent One From Tajikistan

The video dates back to 2015 when a quake rattled Nepal, destroying buildings and temples across the country.

A video, which shows a structure collapsing on a busy junction, is being shared on the internet linking it to the recent earthquake that rocked Tajikistan on 23 February.

Who shared it?: K24, a television station in Kenya, has shared the clip in one of its videos. Several social media users have also uploaded it.

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

What is the truth?: Neither the video is recent nor is it from Tajikistan. The video dates back to 2015 and shows an earthquake in Nepal's Kathmandu.

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How did we find out?: At first, we noticed the CCTV timestamp and the word "Tripureshwor" written on the viral clip.

• Tripureshwor is a village in the Bagmati zone in Nepal.

Taking this forward, we performed a keyword search such as "Tripureshwor 2015 earthquake."

• This led us to an extended version of the viral clip uploaded on a verified YouTube channel called 'WildFilmsIndia'.

• It was uploaded on 14 February 2020 and was titled, "Tripureshwor Chowk south view, Kathmandu, Nepal: Gorkha Earthquake 2015."

• At around the 1:09 mark, one can see the viral clip playing.

News reports of the incident: A report in NDTV published in April 2015 said that a quake of 7.9 magnitude had rattled Nepal, destroying several buildings and temples across the country.

Geolocating the place: Using Tripureshwor chowk as a reference, we searched on Google Maps and found a similar setting with the help of Google's street view.

The available view is from June 2014 and shows some similarities.

What about the earthquake in Tajikistan?: An earthquake of 6.8 magnitude hit eastern part of the country on Thursday, 23 February, and tremors were also felt in China.

Conclusion: The video is old and is unrelated to the recent earthquake in Tajikistan.

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