Claim: A video shared on social media shows passengers escaping a mini bus as the vehicle is washed away by a flash flood following a recent bout of rain in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).
Fact: The incident did not occur as a result of the recent spell of heavy rains in KPK. The video in question is from 2015.
Fact or Fiction?
On 12 July 2022, Twitter user Ali Tirmizi (@AlySyyed) shared a video which shows a vehicle being swept away by a flash flood while passengers try to escape the mini bus to save their lives. The video was accompanied by the caption, “Where is the administration of KPK..?? #KPKRains.”
The video was also picked up by Facebook user Asif Ali Awan.
Soch Fact Check searched Google with the key words “Mini bus flood Pakistan.” The search results led us to an article published 22 October 2015 by United Press International (UPI.com) titled “Flash flood carries mini bus away in Pakistan.” The story contains a screenshot from the video but the video linked in the article is no longer available on YouTube. UPI is an American international news agency with a following of 50,700 on Twitter.
The article states that the incident took place in Lowari Top Dir Upper area in Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) amid a flash flood on Monday, 19 October 2015.
The same video was also found on YouTube posted by Newsflare on 28 October 2015 and titled “Mini Bus Gets Stuck Crossing The River.”
A reddit search revealed that the video was also shared on the platform with the caption “Mini bus gets stuck crossing the river” in 2015.
The Daily Mail shared the same video on 10 April 2016 claiming that it shows a vehicle being washed away along the Karakoram Highway in raging flood water in Pakistan.
This article by Telegraf UA published on 30 July 2016 carried a screenshot of the video as well. The same information appeared in an English-language website here.
Soch Fact Check concludes that the video is from 2015 based on UPI’s report but could not find any reports on the incident by Pakistan-based publications.
Virality
On Twitter, the viral video shared by Ali Tirmizi gained significant traction with 19,800 views. The tweet also received 688 retweets, 75 quote tweets and 1,010 likes.
Conclusion: The video in question is not from the recent monsoon rains which wreaked havoc in different parts of KPK. In fact, it is from 2015.