A video purportedly showing members of a rescue team recovering a girl trapped under rubble and helping her to safety is being circulated as real footage of the Nepal Armed Police Force rescuing a minor girl named Manisha from beneath debris following a flash flood in Nepal.
BOOM found that the girl’s rescue was a real incident, but the video being shared in connection with it was generated using AI.
Nepal is now carrying out extensive rescue operations after devastating floods hit the country on August 26. According to reports, thousands of people have died, gone missing, or been displaced following the suspected glacial lake outburst. India has responded by sending humanitarian assistance, including forensic kits and medical supplies, to Nepal.
The Claim
Several users shared the video with the caption, "Miracles do happen. A six year old, Manisha, was pulled out alive from Timure village of Nepal's Rasuwa district".
Click here and here to view archived versions of such posts.
What We Found: Viral Video Is AI Generated
1. Signs of Distortion in Uniform: We first ran a reverse image search on keyframes from the video but could not find any reliable source that had published the same video with the claimed information. We then noticed that the arm patches and insignia on the purported rescue team members appeared distorted. We also found no similarity between these insignia and arm patches and the rank-wise insignia and dress code details listed on the Nepal Armed Police Force’s official website.
2. Original Visuals of Minor Girl’s Rescue: A keyword search for Manisha, the girl rescued from the Nepal floods, led us to reports by BBC, Sky News and CNN featuring the original rescue footage. The outlets credited the footage to the Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) and reported that Manisha had been trapped under debris for approximately 60 hours before police heard her cries and pulled her out on August 28.
The APF posted the rescue video of Manisha Magar on its X account on August 29, 2026.
3. AI Detector Tools Flag Manipulation: Taking a cue, we analysed the video using multiple AI detection tools, including Hive AI Detector and NVIDIA. Both tools identified the presence of AI-generated content in the video.