As Nepal grapples with the devastating impact of flash floods, a wave of old and unrelated visuals has surfaced on social media, falsely claiming to show the disaster that struck the country on August 26, 2026.
BOOM found that the videos, which have garnered millions of views online, actually depict different incidents and were recorded before the disaster struck Nepal.
Massive landslides and flash floods struck the Nepal-Tibet border on the morning of August 26, causing widespread destruction across the Himalayan region. Official figures state that hundreds of people, including Indian tourists, went missing and several were killed in the incident. Rescue operations are currently underway in the affected areas, amid fears of another flood following China's warning of a possible lake outburst.
While several videos showing the unfolding disaster are being shared on social media, BOOM found that the videos below went viral with false claims that they were from Nepal, when they actually depict different incidents.
Claim 1: Video captures the moment a flash flood swept through Nepal
When we performed a reverse search on a keyframe from the video claimed to show the Nepal disaster, we found several news reports from 2025 identifying the footage as visuals of the flash floods that hit Uttarkashi in August 2025. The Times of India reported on the video, stating that the flash flood, triggered by a cloudburst in the upper catchment area of the Kheer Ganga river, caused large-scale destruction in Dharali village in Uttarkashi district on August 5, 2025.
Another video report by The Indian Express covering the incident can be seen below.
Claim 2: Video recorded from a Chinese helicopter shows the site where a glacier broke, causing destruction in Nepal
Several users shared a video recorded from a helicopter showing an aerial view of a broken glacier, falsely claiming that it captured the cause of the Nepal disaster on August 26. ABP News also published a report based on the same claim. However, BOOM traced the video to the Instagram profile of commercial helicopter pilot Leigh Coates, who shared it on August 22, 2026.
Coates said the video captures a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) at Columbia Glacier in Alaska. She added that the phenomenon has been occurring annually since 2014.
Claim 3: Video captured by a Chinese man shows the moments when a flash flood struck Tibet and Nepal
When we searched for the video, we found that news agency ANI’s UP and Uttarakhand X handle had posted the same video on August 10, 2026. The report stated that the video shows a sudden flash flood in Chamoli’s Niti Valley, where strong currents swept away the Valley Bridge, along with a dozer and a vehicle, near Tamak Valley on the Niti-Malari road.
The video was credited to Chamoli Police.