A video of an intense tornado likely from China is going viral online with a false claim that it is from the Biparjoy cyclone that has impacted Gujarat and parts of Pakistan.
BOOM found that the video is a few weeks old and most likely was shot in China's Fuxin City, located in the Liaoning province.
The IMD has sounded a red alert for Barmer and Jalore after Cyclone Biparjoy crossed the Gujarat coastline and moved towards Rajasthan. It is expected to move towards other parts of Rajasthan as well that will continue seeing heavy rainfall. However, Biparjoy's intensity has weakened and it has been declared a 'severe cyclonic storm' from a 'very severe cyclonic storm'.
The video of a tornado forming in the middle of a city is being shared in this backdrop to claim that the video was taken in Kutch district's Mandvi. The text on the video reads,"The storm has left the Arabian Sea. Please beware and do not leave your villages."
(Original text in Hindi: "अरब सागर से तूफान निकल चुका है। कृपया सतर्क रहे कही गांव छोड़कर बार ना जाए")
Click here to view the post.
The post is being shared on Facebook with a Guajrati caption which can be translated to, "Mandvi Kutch live Cyclone 'Biparjoy' Trailer: Strong impact of cyclone, strong winds even before it hits Gujarat coast."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video is likely to be from Fuxin City in the Liaoning province of China, and was taken earlier this month.
A reverse image search of some keyframes on Google led us to similar tornado videos from China, leading us to believe that this video might be from there. According to this report published on June 2, 2023 by CGTN, a government-operated news website, a tornado struck China's northeast Liaoning province on June 1.
Using this information, we used Chinese keywords to look for the video on YouTube and found this video uploaded on June 4, 2023. The title of the video can be translated to '20230601, Fuxin City, Liaoning Province, tornado 🌪️ #中国 #china'
Here is a comparison between the viral video and the YouTube video.
A YouTube channel called Disaster Compilations shared the same video on June 6, 2023 as part of a compilation titled '[AMAZING VIDS] Tornadoes Hitting Liaoning Province, China - Jun. 1, 2023 (Part 2)'. Our portion of the viral video begins at the 3:25 mark.
Click here to view.
The audio with people screaming in the background has been overlaid onto the video. BOOM could not independently verify the source of the audio, but the video has been taken almost two weeks before the Biparjoy cyclone.
