As Tamil Nadu braces for Cyclone Nivar, an old video from Pakistan’s Karachi of a signboard falling on two motorists due to heavy rainfall has been falsely shared as a video from Chennai’s Poonamallee area.
CLAIM
The video shared by one user as a ‘scary video from Chennai’ with the hashtag, Nivar cyclone, had over 5,000 views at the time of writing this article.
Several users claimed that the video was from Poonamallee.
The Quint also received a query regarding the same on its WhatsApp helpline.
WHAT WE FOUND
The video is actually from Karachi, Pakistan, not Chennai, as claimed.
A keyword search of ‘board falls on bike rider’ led us to the original video on Facebook by Pakistan daily The Express Tribune, dated 7 August 2020.
The description of the video states that a billboard fell because of the storm and injured bike riders on the Shahrae Faisal road in Karachi.
The Express Tribune’s news report on the incident can be viewed here.
A news report by Pakistan’s television network, Samaa TV carrying the same visuals, also states that the incident took place near Metropole Chowrangi in the Shahrae Faisal area.
Gulf News also reported that after the video clip went viral, Karachi’s Commissioner Iftikhar Ali Shalwani had ordered various municipal and civic agencies to immediately remove billboards all over the city to “save human lives.”
Evidently, an old video from Pakistan has been falsely revived as visuals from Chennai’s Poonamallee as it braces for Cyclone Nivar.
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