Timelapse of flash flood in China shared as recent landslides in Kerala's Wayanad

What is the claim?

On July 30, 2024, a massive landslide in Wayanad, Kerala, resulted in the deaths of over 300 people. Amid the devastation, a timelapse video showing a gate of a house slowly submerging under water was shared on social media, purportedly from Wayanad.

An X (formerly Twitter) user shared the video (archived here) with the caption: “...Wayanad, Kerala is in danger,” accompanied by the #PrayForWayanad hashtag. Archived versions of similar claims can be viewed here, here, and here.

Screenshots of the viral posts. (Source: X/Youtube/Screenshot)

However, this claim is false. The video is actually from China, not from the recent landslides in Wayanad, Kerala.

What we found 

A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led to reports and YouTube videos in Mandarin from June 2024, attributing the footage to Guangdong province in China.

The same video appears on the Chinese website ‘aboluowang.com’ (archived here), published on June 24, 2024. The report indicates that flash floods caused extensive damage in China, with significant disruption due to floodwaters from reservoirs. On June 16, villagers in Huangtian Village, Pingyuan County, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, were trapped by flash floodwaters from the Huangtian Reservoir, with the flood rising by two meters in three hours.

A screenshot of the report in Mandarin. (Source: aboluowang.com/screenshot)

Another news website, quoting official sources, stated that 38 people died and two were missing due to the flood. It also covered the alarming footage from CCTV cameras in the area, which showed the rapid rise of floodwaters, leaving villagers no time to escape. The date on the CCTV footage and the details in this report match.

A South China Morning Post report from June 21, 2024, corroborates the deaths of 38 people due to heavy rains and floods in Pingyuan County, Meizhou, Guangdong province, as reported by China Central Television (CCTV).

Additionally, the same video is found on the Chinese video-sharing site 'Bilibili' (archived here), posted on June 23, 2024.

Screenshot of the video posted on Bilibili. (Source: Bilibili/Screenshot)

The video was also uploaded to YouTube on various dates in June, with captions in Mandarin indicating it was from Meizhou City, Guangdong province. These YouTube videos are available here and here, with their archive links accessible here and here.

Although the exact original source of the video remains unclear, it is confirmed to have been online before the landslide in Wayanad, Kerala, which occurred at 1:30 a.m. on July 30, 2024.

The verdict 

CCTV footage from China is being shared with the false claim that it depicts the recent landslides in Wayanad, Kerala.

(Translated by Vanita Ganesh)