Claim: A video of an apartment building being destroyed by giant waves was taken at Emaar Apartments in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Phase 8 in Karachi, Pakistan
Fact: The claim is false. The video is from 2018 Spain where huge waves from a wind storm on the north coast of Tenerife in the Canary Islands hit the balconies of residential apartments.
On 18 August 2022, a Facebook page shared a video with the caption “Emaar Apartment, Phase-8, DHA Karachi today.”
In the 8-second video, water waves can be seen hitting and destroying the balcony of a residential apartment building. The video started circulating after Karachi experienced heavy monsoon rains which caused major infrastructural damage and flooding in different parts of the city.
Fact or Fiction?
To investigate the claim, Soch Fact Check conducted a Reverse Image Search on Google led us to the “Mesa del Mar apartments” located in Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands. The apartment building has a terrace and sea views.
A YouTube video, published on 19 November 2018 by The Guardian, shows an extended version of the video. In the 34-second video, the sea and mountains can be seen near the building. The Guardian video caption reads; “Huge waves batter buildings on the north coast of Tenerife in the Canary Islands over the weekend, prompting evacuations. According to local reports, 39 people were evacuated from their homes but nobody was injured.”
A Facebook page E Weather also posted the same video here on 19 November 2018, saying that the incident took place in Spain.
Virality
An organic search on Facebook showed that the video in question shared by a non-verified page of Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education Karachi received 58,600 views, 650 likes, 240 shares.
It is also shared here, here, here, here, here and here on Facebook between 17 – 20 August 2022.
Conclusion: The video of water waves hitting and destroying balconies of a residential apartment building is not from Karachi. The video was taken in Spain in 2018.
[…] Soch Fact Check has previously investigated other misleading and false images going viral on social media, such as this picture of a child carrying a dog in a steel bowl and this video claiming to show giant waves destroying an apartment in Karachi. […]