Old image of bridge collapse in Madhya Pradesh shared as from Gujarat's Surendranagar

What’s the claim

An image of a collapsed bridge was used by few Indian news outlets, including news agency IANS, to claim that it showed the bridge that collapsed in Gujarat's Surendranagar district on September 24. An archive version of the post can be found here.

Screenshot of the post by IANS (Source: X, @Ians_india)

While sharing this image, IANS captioned it with the Aam Aadmi Party’s reaction and wrote, “The Aam Aadmi Party (#AAP) has launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister #NarendraModi over the incident of a bridge collapse that took place in the #Surendranagar district of #Gujarat, adding that it was #Modi's '#GujaratModel' that had collapsed (sic).”

The same image was used by some other local news networks. Archived versions of their stories can be found here and here.

However, the image is from 2022 and is unrelated to the Surendranagar incident.

What we found

A reverse image search led us to several reports from 2022 that carried the same image. According to a report by NDTV dated April 10, 2022, the image shows an old British-era bridge on the Sukhtawa River in Madhya Pradesh's Narmadapuram, which fell while a trailer truck was crossing the bridge.

Screenshot of an article that appeared on NDTV (Source: NDTV/Screenshot)

Though the image is not the same, it shows the overturned truck, which can also be seen in the viral image.

Comparison between the bridge collapse image from MP and the viral image.
(Source: X/@Ians_india (L), NDTV(R)

The official X (formerly Twitter) handle of the District Collector of Narmadapuram also shared a picture from the incident in April 2022. The post mentioned that a bridge had collapsed on the Bhopal national highway.  The picture also shows the timestamp as April 10, 2022.

Image shared by the District Collector of Narmadapuram. (Source: X/@dmhoshangabad/Altered by Logically Facts)

Additionally, a video of this bridge collapse and its reconstruction was also shared by Southern Command Indian Army on its official X account on August 31, 2022. This confirms that the image is from Madhya Pradesh and is unrelated to the bridge collapse in Gujarat.

What about the bridge collapse in Gujarat? 

A part of an old bridge over the Bhogavo River collapsed in Gujarat's Surendranagar district on September 24. While no deaths were reported, four people were injured, reported news agency PTI. 

The incident has said to have occurred when a 40-ton dumper was trying to cross the bridge even when entry of heavy vehicles was banned, the report added, quoting officials.  

English news channel India Today shared the visuals of the incident, which don’t resemble the viral image in any manner. 

Screenshot of an article that appeared on India Today (Source: India Today/Screenshot)

The verdict

2022 visual of a bridge collapse in Madhya Pradesh is shared as a bridge in Gujarat's Surendranagar district.