Dated photos from Spain showing a person committing suicide by jumping off a building are being shared online with a false claim that an Italian man took his life after his entire family succumbed to the deadly COVID-19 disease.
BOOM found that the images are old and in no way related to the current outbreak of the disease in Italy or Spain.
Both Italy and Spain are grappling with rising number of Coronavirus cases and have overtaken China as the hotbed of the virus.
The viral image has been shared on social media with a caption reading '#stay_at_home This image gives goosebumps. After losing his entire family to Coronavirus, this Italian man committed suicide.'
(Hindi: #घर_पर_आराम_कर रोंगटे खड़ी कर दी इस तस्वीर ने | अपने पूरे परिवार को कोरोना से गंवाने के बाद अंत में आत्महत्या कर ली इटली के इस युवा ने |)
The viral image is shared below and its archived version can be accessed here.
A tweet sharing the video of the same incident with similar claim.
Also read False: Indonesian Doctor's Last Photo Before He Died Of COVID-19
So far, the dreaded COVID-19 has killed 21,308 people across the world with Italy alone reporting 7,503 deaths.
Fact Check
The images show a partial name of the building 'hotel valen', we found a Hotel Valencia online in Valencia, Spain which matches the viral images.
We did a reverse image search and found links to some websites carrying the same photo. A fact check by Spanish website Maldito Bulo (Maldita.es )confirmed that the image was old and the incident happened in Spain, not Italy. Also, the person seen in the image is a woman, said the article. It is not clear what drove the woman to take the step.
The Maldita article mentions that the incident took place on December 24, 2019, as confirmed to them by National Police, Valencia. The first Coronavirus death outside China was reported from Philippines in February this year, and the first case of COVID-19 death in Europe was reported from France on February 15, 2020.
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Back in December 2019, the same image had gone viral falsely claiming it to an incident wherein a man committed suicide due to 'gender violence law'. Maldita had debunked that claim too. Read the fact check here.
BOOM also came across a video uploaded on the website Hoodsite on December 27, 2019 showing the original incident.
