Old video of waves crashing into a bridge falsely linked to Cyclone Biparjoy

Claim: A video of waves of water crashing onto a bridge apparently shows Cyclone Biparjoy damaging in Gujrat, India.

Fact: The video is actually from 2017, not from 2023 when Cyclone Biparjoy is nearing India and Pakistan.

Cyclone Biparjoy has been churning across the northeastern Arabian Sea, heading toward southern Pakistan and western India since last week. The storm is forecast to make landfall near the border of India (Kutch in the western Indian state of Gujarat) and Pakistan (coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan) around midday Thursday. Coastal warnings have been issued, and tens of thousands of people are being evacuated in both countries.

Fact or Fiction?

On 13 June 2023, a blue verified Twitter account Insider Time posted a video with the caption, “BREAKING: #Biparjoy cyclone eats up a bridge in Gujarat, India. The cyclone is affecting India and Pakistan’s coastal belt.”

According to recent updates, Cyclone Biparjoy is likely to make landfall near Kutch in India and is 380km away from Karachi, Pakistan.

Soch Fact Check reverse image searched keyframes from the video and found that the clip was previously shared here five years ago, on 24 August 2017, with the headline “Minicoy Eastern Jetty ROUGH SEAS.”

It was also posted on 26 August 2017 to another YouTube Channel here. The video description reads, “Huge waves attacked Minicoy Island Eastern Jetty on 23/08/2017. No causalities were reported but some local catamaran were destroyed in Agatti and Chetlat Island.”

Minicoy, locally known as Maliku, is an island in Lakshadweep, India. Lakshadweep is a tropical archipelago of 36 atolls and coral reefs in the Laccadive Sea, off the coast of Kerala, India.

Furthermore, Google Maps and Google Earth show the same spot as seen in the video the Eastern Jetty of the Minicoy Island.

Virality 

This is not the first time the video was shared with misleading claims. It was previously linked to Cyclone Tauktae, Cyclone Ochi, and Cyclone Yaas.

The post linking the video to Cyclone Biparjoy on Twitter received 70k views and 100 retweets. The archived versions can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.

Conclusion: A video showing waves crashing into a bridge is from 2017, it does not show Cyclone Biparjoy striking India and Pakistan.