The clip was shared after at least 108 people were killed by landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains that hit tea plantations before dawn in Wayanad district in India’s southern coastal state of Kerala (archived link).
Another 128 people were hospitalized for treatment after being rescued from the mud and rubble.
The district is known for the tea plantations that crisscross its hilly landscape, which rely on a large number of day labourers for planting and harvesting.
The same video was also shared with similar claims elsewhere on X, here and here.
The images circulating online are dated June 16 and were circulated in online news reports at least a month before the disaster in Wayanad.
Floods in Meizhou
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the mistakenly shared video led to a longer version of the same footage, which was posted on June 25 by a YouTube channel that regularly posts clips of natural disasters and extreme weather (archived link).
The clip is titled: “June 16, 2024 – Meizhou, Guangdong, China – Timelapse of severe flooding.”
AFP reported on June 26 that at least 38 people had died in heavy rains and flooding around the city of Meizhou, citing figures from authorities (archived link).
Below is a screenshot of the video used in the fake messages (left) and the YouTube video (right):
In the upper right corner of the video is the logo of Qiaoan CCTV, a security camera manufacturer based in Guangdong (archived link).
A subsequent keyword search was also shared on Chinese social media platforms, including Bilibili on June 26, with the caption: “Floods in Meizhou, Guangdong” (archived link).
Further searching found the same video in Chinese reports here and here about the Meizhou floods (archived links here and here).
