Video of train collision in India peddled as footage of Hazara Express crash in Pakistan

Context

On August 6, at least 30 people died, and over 100 people were injured after several coaches of a train derailed in southern Pakistan. Several carriages of the Hazara Express derailed, and some overturned near Sahara railway station in Nawabshah, a few hundred kilometers from Karachi. According to a report by BBC, Railway Minister Saad Rafiq said the reason behind the derailment was yet to be established.

Against the backdrop of the tragic incident, several social media users are sharing old and misleading visuals. One such video captures an aerial view of a train accident showing the entire length of the derailed train. Several users shared the video on the platform X (formerly Twitter) with captions claiming that it shows the Hazara Express train accident in Pakistan. One post on X, originally in Turkish, that shared the video with this claim has garnered nearly a million views at the time of publishing. The archives can be found here and here. 

Where are the visuals actually from?

The top right corner of the viral video has the logo of Odisha TV or OTV, an Odia language news outlet.

We found that OTV had shared the viral video on its YouTube channel on June 3. The video was titled "Odisha Train Tragedy: Aerial View Captures Devastation In Bahanaga."

We also found another video published by The Times of India(TOI) on June 3 on YouTube showing the aerial view of the Odisha train accident, referring to the tragedy when three trains collided in Balasore, Odisha in India on June 2. The video shows a wider aerial view of the accident; however, we could spot similar frames from the viral clip. 

The viral video and the TOI clip capture the train collision at the 0:03 and 0:31 mark, respectively. At the 0:13 timestamp, the viral footage shows overturned coaches, similar to how carriages are displaced at the 2:20 mark in the TOI video. At the 0:22 mark of the viral footage, we noted one end of the train, also seen at 2:32 in the TOI video. Both videos show the same terrain, road, and the same white coach on another track. The TOI video description stated that the footage shows a visual account of the Odisha train accident, capturing the wreckage of the derailed trains.

The Odisha train collision is one of India's worst train accidents. The collision reportedly happened due to a change in the electronic interlocking, leaving over 260 people dead and 1,000 injured.

The verdict

A video from the Odisha train collision that took place in June has been peddled as the recent train derailment incident in Pakistan.